How Your Business Can Minimise Waste During the Festive Season

It’s a familiar sight over the festive season: the increase in general waste often means overflowing bins as collections struggle to keep up. No matter the size of your business, the kind of waste you produce, or any seasonal changes such as those that come with Christmas, you’ll need to consider your waste plan now we are in December. Luckily, there are many ways to reduce the amount of waste you produce over the holiday period, as well as ensure that you’re coping with any unavoidable increases in volumes. And fortunately, there are ways to do so without costing your business any extra.

Reduce, reuse and recycle

Reducing overall waste is simple, whether you’re an individual, a family household or a large business. Furthermore, it’s not something you need to wait till Christmas to do something about.  Coming to the end of 2020, it’s no secret that most consumers are now aware of the environmental impact of their choices and will be actively seeking out companies with greener, more socially responsible business practices.

Getting on board with greener initiatives is not just great for the environment, it also makes good business sense and will likely save you money in the long term, too. An easy way to make a big impact is to start with the most commonly produced yet most easily recyclable material: paper and cardboard.

Earn your company a greener reputation by switching to local suppliers who use less or fully recycled and recyclable paper packaging. Ask suppliers if they can reduce the packaging used or combine bulk shipping – this may result in more savings, too. If you can, downsize your own packaging materials and commit to going paperless in 2021. Small improvements can quickly add up.

Another way to make a difference is to reuse materials – many savvy companies are now recycling paper and cardboard waste in-house, either by directly reusing boxes for shipping or shredding cardboard to use as cheap and environmentally friendly packaging. Depending on your business, this can be a great way to communicate to customers your commitment to being environmentally friendly. For smaller businesses that might not want to invest in a paper shredder just yet, a cardboard baler can still offer significant savings and convenience.

If your company is one that sees a big uptick in business over the Christmas period, you might wish to plan ahead and take measures to pre-empt the extra waste produced. Order in bulk where possible and use a cardboard baler to compact materials for collection and recycling. When cardboard is baled this way, it takes up much less space, meaning you need fewer collections. Make sure you’ve cleared some space for any temporary storage of additional bales over the festive season.

Don’t pay extra for waste management over Christmas

Typically, a business would deal with extra waste incurred over the Christmas period by paying for more bins or booking additional bin lifts or collections over December and January. While this is certainly unavoidable in some cases, the truth is that a little forward planning can save your business both time and money.

The great thing about using a cardboard baler rental service is that you can cope with a greatly increased waste volume well before needing to pay for extra bins or collections. This is because you can scale up the amount of waste produced, but your waste costs still stay exactly the same. Provided you have the room to store them, you simply create more bales, which are already incredibly space-saving.

Unlike with organising more bins or bin lifts, your baler can easily deal with any additional Christmas waste, without you needing to adjust or pay extra. This is particularly useful if collections are limited directly over public holidays or you experience delays for any other reason. By using a cardboard baler, you can easily accommodate any additional waste generated, as well as potential staff shortages or delays in normal waste collections.

Most companies now know just how important it is to deal with their paper and cardboard waste responsibly but are unsure about how to go about it practically. Beyond certain volumes, managing bulky cardboard boxes and huge amounts of paper and packaging can start to be difficult.

A cardboard compactor or baler is the ideal solution and can show its true colours during the festive season in particular, which often brings extra recycling waste. A cardboard baler is not just useful for managing and compacting down cumbersome waste, but can actually save you time, space, money and man hours. A cardboard baler can work reliably for you even as you ramp up paper waste volumes, leaving you one less thing to worry about over the busy Christmas season.