With the many urgent tasks and deadlines looming over your head during a regular day at the office, trash and waste management are probably the last things on your mind, but they’re both incredibly important nonetheless. Regular and proactive waste management can help maintain a neat and tidy work environment that could also lead to high productivity.
Leaving your waste to build and accumulate over time can make the office an uncomfortable place to work at for many employees. This could be anything from unmanaged food waste that develops foul odors and smells overtime to even the trashcan at the corner of the room as it overflows with waste.
While most offices manage their waste by employing a cleaning service or agency to perform regular cleanings, there are also a few steps that workers can take to ensure that their workspace is as clean and conducive as it can be, especially in between sessions. Here are some tips that you can try out!
Create or Assign a Team to Manage Waste
You walk over to the office trash can to throw away a crumpled piece of paper when you realize that it has already reached its maximum capacity, so much so that there are a few pieces that have completely fallen out.
You think to yourself that you should probably bring the can to the building’s trash chute to empty it, but decide that it’s not your responsibility. Instead, you simply shrug to yourself and throw your crumpled paper anyway, not caring about the fact that it bounced onto the floor instead.
If this sounds like something you’ve done, then it’s time for an intervention. Chances are that the employees in your office space are aware of the waste management issue but simply choose to overlook it completely because it’s not their job to do something about it.
A good way to set a sustainable waste management plan into motion is to assign a group or team of people to take simple yet effective actions to stop the trash from building up in the office.
These don’t have to be difficult efforts because something as simple as throwing out the trash when needed could be enough, especially if the company is already subscribed to a cleaning agency and only needs to manage relatively minimal waste.
Should your company be big enough, this task of overseeing the waste management can be assigned to different teams for each day of the week so that it doesn’t feel like too much of a burden on top of your employees’ daily responsibilities, while also teaching everyone that proper waste management is a collective responsibility.
Also read: How to Clean Your Office Coffee Maker
Set Up an Office Recycling Station
In most offices, each employee usually has their own designated trash bins by their desk for convenient disposal, but this doesn’t really help each worker become more aware of what they’re throwing away and how they’re doing this.
Having a single disposal station in the office to be shared by everyone will help employees think more carefully about what they’re throwing away, but making this into a recycling station will also help them become more mindful of the importance of segregating their trash.
Another advantage of having a centralized disposal station in the office is that you can cater the trash collection method to suit the kind of trash being collected. This is most applicable to food waste, which quickly decomposes and creates an unbearable smell when left for a long time.
Instead of letting employees throw their various food waste in their own trash cans by their desks, increasing the distribution and sources of these nasty odors, your office can have a covered trash can dedicated solely to food waste or compost to stop any smells from escaping. It also stops the food waste from absorbing into other waste like paper materials.
Regularly Clean Waste Bins
If you’re on your way to implementing some waste management steps into your office, that’s great, but you also need to remember that it’s important to clean your trash cans too, especially when these trash cans collect food waste. Overtime, trash cans can accumulate stinky smells from the trash put in them, and these odors can be difficult to eliminate.
They might be unbearable, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something about it yourself. You can easily give your waste bin a good cleaning with some rubber gloves, an all purpose cleaner or a disinfectant spray, a sponge or a microfiber towel, and some paper towels.
Step 1: Rinse Out Trash Can
After emptying it of any and all trash, you should start by rinsing everything with some water. You can easily do this by bringing it to your office bathroom and putting it under the faucet.
Step 2: Bring Out Your Cleaner
Once it’s been rinsed, get either your all purpose cleaner or your disinfectant spray and generously spritz the inside and outside of the trash can. For an extra deodorizing step, you can also pour in a half cup of baking soda and rub it all over the inside of your trash can. When you’ve finished this step, leave everything to sit for about 5-10 minutes.
Step 3: Scrub Away
With a sponge, a microfiber towel or a bristled brush, begin scrubbing the trash can both inside and out.
Step 4: Rinse and Dry
After sufficiently scrubbing everything, run the entire can under some water and get some paper towels to dry everything.
These are only a few steps to set up an effective and proactive waste management system in your office, but nothing really beats the thorough cleaning of a cleaning agency—that’s where Luce Office comes in!
Our well-trained and experienced cleaners will make sure that your office is absolutely spotless so that you and your staff can focus on the important tasks instead.
Give us a call and schedule your first cleaning appointment today!
