DIY Network

Recycling Office Materials Recycling Office Materials From "Talking Dirty With the Queen of Clean" episode DQOC-130

Whether you drive to the office every day, or walk down the hall to a home office, a clean office goes beyond just organizing your workspace. Today it's possible to recycle, or buy recycled, products for virtually everything in the workspace from paper to phones and wall coverings to computers.

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Our society has begun to produce a tremendous amount of electronic waste. Computers, monitors, scanners, printers, copiers, communications equipment and banking equipment all have electronics that quickly become obsolete and need to be disposed of correctly. Currently we produce five million to seven million tons of this type of waste annually. Fortunately, almost everything in these components can be recycled into new products. For example, computers are 100 percent recyclable, producing resources of gold, copper, aluminum, plastic and steel. Jim Greenberg's company, Gold Circuit Inc., shreds up to 800 computer monitors a hour for the Fortune 500 companies that depend on Gold Circuit to recycle their electronic waste. Although they don't handle mercury or battery recycling, they do recycle most electronic waste.

	Figure A
	Figure B

Once a computer is shredded, the pieces end up on a conveyer belt passing through an electromagnetic system that pulls out the steel (figure A). The steel is separated into containers and moved to a holding area before being sent to a second recycling center, where it will be processed and converted into construction-grade steel (figure B). Meanwhile, the stream of shredded material continues its recycling journey.

The glass is next to be separated and pulverized, and since it contains a high lead content, it's sent to an EPA-certified lead smelter to be recycled. Even the dust generated by this process is captured by an elaborate air-flow system. It's sealed and also sent to a smelter.

If you need to recycle electronics from a home office, you can check with your local recycling center or EPA office for guidelines and proper disposal methods. But you personally can control how other home-office waste is recycled when the tools you use are no longer efficient. Recycling guarantees they'll be turned into something useful instead of taking up space in a landfill.

• Keep recycling bins for paper and magazines close to your desk.

• Replace foam cups with paper: paper can be recycled.

• Set up a bin for aluminum cans.
  

  Figure C

• Keep schools and art centers in mind when cleaning up an office. Check to see whether they can use office equipment, office supplies, magazines and binders. Art, design and architecture schools can often use fabric, tile and carpet for student projects (figure C).

• Check with your recycling center to see whether either they or other local companies recycle florescent bulbs for the glass and the mercury.
  

So now that the recycling is done, does your office appear clean and organized, or does it still look like a disaster zone? Some people thrive in the midst of clutter, but most of us function better when our environment is organized. Brian Smith, of Staples, offers the following suggestions for ways to tidy up an office:

• Make notes on a large desk calendar instead of having a clutter of sticky notes. A calendar keeps all the information in one handy place.

• Use a phone organizer to manage the phone, phone book and message and note pads.

• Small plastic rolling carts with drawers are perfect for organizing supplies.

• Set up labeled bins for items to be recycled.

• Multitasking organizers keep pencils, paper clips, rubber bands and sticky notes neat on the desk.

• File organizers keep files organized on the desk.
  

  Figure D

• Collapsible paper trays organize paper on the desk (figure D).
  

There are many types and styles of office organizers on the market. Shop around and pick up the ones that are right for your needs.

Tip: Click away clutter by reviewing your e-mail subscriptions. If you are no longer interested, ask to be deleted from future e-mailings.