11 Ways to Reduce Waste & Rubbish Output in The Office [2025]

Office spaces and businesses produce a lot of waste and rubbish every year. In the UK alone, each employee uses approximately 10,000 sheets of paper every year. Unfortunately, over 75% of them are thrown away and end up in waste bins. These numbers have forced businesses to rethink their waste management strategies to reduce the amount of waste they produce every year. The question is how can they do that?

In this article, we will explore the best ways to reduce the amount of waste and rubbish in your office and workspace.

Why You Should Reduce Waste in Your Office

One of the cleaning goals businesses that operate from large offices are trying to achieve is to incorporate green cleaning practices and go towards a more sustainable workspace. They aim to save the planet and help the environment by changing some of their habits.

Reducing waste and increasing recycling is also a part of the green movement businesses are trying out. Therefore, reducing rubbish and waste is an important step for the office to go green.

In addition, less rubbish, especially wet food waste, can eliminate pests and reduce the risk of pest infestation in the office. Therefore, less waste production not only has benefits for the environment but also improves the health and hygiene around the workspace.

Best Ways to Reduce Waste in The Office

There are several ways to reduce waste in your workspace. But not all of them are as effective as the best ones we are about to discuss here. The following ways are tried and tested by various businesses with different office setup, number of employees and environmental policies.

#1 No More Single-use

The number one reason why waste production is so high in office spaces is because of using single-use items. They include paper cups, single-use cutlery, food containers and other similar items. You can invest in quality coffee mugs, glasses, cutlery and plates in the office to stop the use of single-use items.

Read More: Office Cleaning Challenges

#2 Provide Filtered Water

Using filtered water instead of bottled water to reduce waste in office

Providing filter water can reduce the use of water bottles around the office. You can get a water fountain with proper filtrations or a water purifier machine for the office and stop supplying the office with bottled water. This not only reduces the amount of waste in the office but also can save your business a lot of money in the long run.

#3 Get a Coffee Machine

Similar to eliminating the use of bottled water in the office, you can also stop to-go paper coffee cups your employees bring with them. All you need to do is invest in a good coffee machine and get decent-quality coffee for the office kitchen. Therefore, you will reduce the amount of waste in the office as there’s no paper cup to dispose of.

#4 Go Paperless

The paper has the major share in office waste. As mentioned in the beginning, each employee is using 10,000 sheets of paper per year. That is nearly cutting down 5 treen per employee per year. Reducing the use of paper can greatly reduce the office environment impact as well as their produced waste.

The solution is easy. You have to enforce policies in the office to encourage employees to go paperless as much as possible. This means not printing drafts, sending documents via email instead of printing and sending a physical version and relying on electronic formats rather than paper.

#5 Provide Separate Bins

Using separate bin in office for waste management and waste reduction by recycling

By separating the office waste into recyclables, food waste and general waste not only can you measure how much waste your office is producing but also you can recycle more and prevent recyclable waste from mixing with general rubbish.

Therefore, get separate bins for the office. One for recyclable waste like paper, plastic and glass, one for food waste and one for general waste that ends up in landfills.

#6 Educate Employees

Waste reduction efforts won’t be effective until you inform your employees and educate them about this matter. It is crucial to openly educate your workforce about the following matters:

Stop using single-use items.
Not bringing plastic water bottles to the office.
Don’t get to-go coffee and use the office coffee machine instead.
How to correctly use the coffee machine to brew a nice cup of coffee.
Stop printing and using paper unless it’s necessary.
How to correctly dispose of rubbish.
Using the correct bins for the type of waste they are disposing of.
Effects of reducing waste around the office.
Benefits of recycling and helping the environment.

#7 Encourage Employees

An effective way to ensure your efforts will reduce the amount of waste in the office is to encourage your employees to produce less rubbish in the first place. The best encouragement is to show yourself as a role model when it comes to recycling, using less paper, not using single-use items and other similar gestures.

Therefore, to encourage others to help the office reduce waste output, start with yourself and be a role model for them to get the results you are looking for.

#8 Have Fun Challenges

Another way to encourage employees to cooperate in reducing the office waste output is to set out challenges that centre around recycling and waste production. These office incentives are often effective if the challenge is planned in a fun and engaging way. You can set a goal for the amount of waste output and celebrate if you achieve it. You can also set individual goals for employees and give a present to the champion.

#9 Get Rid of Personal Bins

The presence of a bin underneath the employee’s desk is an incentive for them to produce more rubbish. Therefore, if all personal bins are removed and there are only a few throughout the office space, waste output will also be reduced. Since employees should leave their desks to dispose of something, they will think twice before producing waste or using items that lead to waste production (e.g. paper cups) in the first place.

Also, fewer rubbish bins around the office not only reduce the amount of waste output but also reduce business cleaning costs in the long run as cleaners don’t have to spend so much time emptying every bin and replacing their liners.

#10 Install Hand Dryers

Using hot air dryers in toilet instead of paper towels to reduce office waste output

Paper towels for drying hands are another big part of office daily waste. You can easily reduce their use and reduce waste output by replacing towel rolls with hot hand dryers in the office toilet. They are also more cost-efficient than traditional paper hand towels and can save the business a good amount of money in the long term.

#11 Keep The Office Cleaner

Trying to keep the office space cleaner for longer is another way to reduce waste output in the office. Apart from hiring a regular office cleaning service for the office, you can also get employees to keep the office clean. This involves a few measures to make sure the office remains cleaner for a longer period and will result in the reduction of waste output as well.

Read More: Benefits of Daily Office Cleaning

Conclusion

Office waste contributes to a large share of overall waste production. Each office employee uses over 10,000 sheets of paper per year. Sadly, 75% of them end up in waste streams. That is why businesses are trying to reduce their office waste output and incorporate green strategies. Their purpose, of course, is to save the planet. To reduce waste output, they have to implement certain measures and ways. In this article, we discussed the most effective ways to reduce office waste output.

The information in this article can help you learn the correct way to decrease the amount of waste produced in your office space. Therefore, you can implement them in your office and get the results you are looking for.

How to Reduce The Waste & Rubbish Output in The Office? [9 Ways]