Macville Enewsletter

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Did you know the Government.... A MacVille Success Story Best Practice Tips and Tricks Your Suggestions, Our Sustainability | | | | Did you know the Government...The Government has many pieces of legislation designed to protect the environment, companies are required to abide by these. One such piece of legislation is the ‘Waste Reduction and Recycling Bill 2011’, it sets out guidelines to help reduce the amount of waste produced and recover resources where possible. The bill sets out the preferred order in which waste and resource management options should be considered: 1. REDUCE and AVOID unnecessary resource consumption and waste generation; 2. RE-USE waste resources without further manufacturing; 3. RECYCLE waste resources to make the same or different products; 4. RECOVER waste resources, including the recovery of energy; 5. TREAT waste before disposal, including reducing the hazardous nature of waste; 6. DISPOSE of waste only if there is no viable alternative.It’s interesting to note that the last option should always be disposal and that there are many options available to us all to avoid that option and minimize waste.A Macville Success StoryRecently Macville conducted an audit of our resource usage and uncovered some home truths that were less than satisfactory. So we decided to make a change for the better and set ourselves some challenges to turn things around. One area that we focused on was our need to print, and we wanted to reduce this to save on paper, toner and servicing of the printers and copiers. We set the challenge to reduce our printing by 20% over a 2 month period. This was no easy feat, and in order to achieve this, we had to re-think the way we did business.With new procedures in place at the end of the first two months all costs were down. Our monthly paper consumption went from 599 reams to 479, reducing costs by $477.60. Toner costs dropped from $686 to 548.80 and cost of servicing went from $3,159.86 to $2,527.88. Overall costs were down by $1,540.80. |
Staff were reward for their efforts with a team outing funded with the savings, and this has spurred all on to keep looking for ways to improve.Best PracticeBest Practice is a method that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark. We will be using best practice to implement a paper recycling strategy and a toner cartridge management strategy.Our paper recycling strategy includes a new partnership with Visy recycling. Each desk will receive a new paper recycling bin, with all floors gaining a larger bin and a secure bin for confidential documents. If we make it easy for staff to recycle, it’s more likely to happen. We have a designated section for cardboard that is collected daily by the cleaners. We are educating staff through a variety of posters and communications on what can and cannot be recycled and how reusing should be the first option.Our toner cartridge management strategy includes a new program were all used toners will be collected by our facilities department and registered and sent off for recycling. In order to obtain a new toner an older toner has to be check in, this is to ensure staff or not discarding them in the general waste.
Tips and TricksHere are a few tips and tricks that we can all do around the office: * Reduce the amount of paper you use each day: * Use scrap paper for notes * Set your printer to print double sided only * Only print out emails or documents when absolutely necessary * Make sure you have access to paper, cardboard and co-mingled recycling services: * Place all used paper, used on both sides, in the Visy desk tray or bin * Collect cardboard boxes for recycling, flatten them, and place into your Visy bin * Place plastic bottles, aluminium cans, tin cans, milk and juice cartons in your Visy office co-mingled bin * Reduce your energy consumption: * Turn off computers when not in use * Turn off office lighting when not in use * Activate the sleep mode on your computer so it switches off the screen after 10 minutes of no use * Switch off office equipment at night when leaving the office * Reduce your waste: * Bring your own mug to work and have some set aside for visitors * Invest in a 'keep cup' for takeaway coffees to cut down on disposable cups * Try to bring lunch from home or eat in a local café to avoid packaging waste generated by takeaway lunchesYour Suggestions, Our SustainabilitySustainability plays an important part in our future, its vital for us to do all we can now to help ensure the earth’s resources are here for future generations. Macville is committed to doing all it can and welcomes any suggestions or feedback, please send it to sustainability@macville.com.au. | | |