Save the World With Plastic Recycle Signs
Save the World With Plastic Recycle Signs
Of all the inventions of human civilization, plastic stands out as one of the most double-edged. It is one of the most resilient materials that is relatively cheap to produce, making it ideal for containers and portable furniture, among many other things. This trait of plastic, however, also means that once it is thrown away, it is very difficult to get rid of completely. Plastic is not bio-degradable by its nature, meaning that the millions of tons of plastic that we throw away every year do not vanish or return to the soil, but sit around in a dumping site somewhere, in vast waste deposits that only grow larger annually. Another red light is the fact that oil, a resource that cannot be renewed, is the primary component in plastic production. Every plastic bottle carelessly tossed away to add to those growing mountains of plastic trash is also a small amount of oil that will never return. Short of abandoning plastic altogether, the only concrete way to drastically reduce the amount of plastic waste floating about or piling up is to send it back to where it can be reused. In other words, the key to the world’s plastic woes is with recycling.
In the workplace, there are many sources of plastic waste, from the drink bottles brought and thrown in the breakroom to the plastic wrapping and shells used for many office supplies. Recycling these objects here is just as effective as doing it anywhere else, and indeed, many offices now actively support plastic recycling as one of the measures they can take to help preserve the environment. The first step, of course, is to inform employees and colleagues about the importance of plastic recycling, and what it can do to reduce pollution and conserve energy resources. Once the awareness has been created, the second step is to drive the point home with simple but effective reinforcement, the type that can be created by putting up a plastic recycling sign. There are plenty of sharp, colourful, attractive posters on the market today that encourage the recycling of plastic, and can be positioned easily above a designated recycling bin or storage area for employee compliance. The average office worker doesn’t want to deliberately destroy the environment with plastic waste; he just needs a bit of a reminder every now and then, and this is what a sign achieves. Research conducted on the effectiveness of signs in encouraging people to observe environmentally sound policies has shown that people are much more likely to follow them with a sign than without.
Plastic recycling signs are relatively cheap, and worth far more than the investment an office would make in their purchase for the workplace. The savings to the workplace itself may not be directly measurable, but the world will certainly be a better place for them, thanks to the employees who now have something to help them remember to do the correct thing. With their assistance, the billions of pounds in plastic waste that are returned to productive use through recycling each year will only continue to increase.
