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I’ve already written about my home office and its relatively small carbon footprint—it consists of my laptop and our coffee table. But everything I'm saving is balanced out by Mike's office: he works in a huge office building, drives 45 minutes each way to get there every day, and is part of a company that doesn't recycle anything. The cafeteria stocks pallets of water and juice, free to employees, but doesn't have a water cooler for refilling—and doesn't offer any plastic or glass recycling. (Of course, they also ship oil all over the world, so it's not exactly an earth-friendly industry.)
But my green changes must be rubbing off on Mike, because one day he emails me a photo from his phone of a trash can with a sign that says, "Plastic and glass only, please." He's started his own recycling initiative, even though it means bringing the can home when it's full and adding it to our own recycling. By the end of the first day, the can is half full—but when he gets in the next morning, the cleaners have emptied it. Now he's on a mission to find out if the cleaning service recycles, or if he'll need to start emptying the bottles every day. Either way, it's small changes like this that can make a difference in the long run—or at least, until they start shipping an alternate fuel.
More on Recycling Plastic at Work:
How to Go Green: At Work
On Bottled Water
Kick the Plastic Bottle Habit
More about plastic recycling:
Plastic Bottle Recycling is a Dying Dream
Buy the Book!
Ready, Set, Green: Eight Weeks to Modern Eco-Living
Blythe Copeland is a freelancer writer living on Long Island. Read more about her foray into the green life in her previous columns as she follows the plan set out in the book Ready, Set, Green: Eight Weeks to Modern Eco-Living.
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