Why manufacturing plants need to start recycling

Going green is a great way to help save the planet but it's also a great way to make your business more attractive to your customers. Recycling is easy to do and you don't even need to redesign your entire company in order to include it as part of your daily routines. The government is offering a number of incentives to companies that are boosting their efforts to go green and to implement recycling programs.

Quit generating excess waste and start focusing on recycling in order to save money and to help save the planet. Recycling is more than tossing plastic bags and tin cans into bins, there are several other things you can do to recycle within your organization. How many products do you manufacture each day? Take a look at your waste bin, what happens to all of that waste? Can you take the old products and reuse them to make new ones? If you work at a company that produces bread and other things it may be a little bit harder for you to develop a recycling program. One way to do it in the food industry is to get in touch with homeless shelters or even farmers and find out if you can sell your "damaged" foods to them or donate them. Many times the food is still good, but it just isn't deemed sellable because it was flattened in the manufacturing process.

Recycling glass is one of the best things because it is 100% recyclable unlike other materials. Plastic is one thing that you need to focus on recycling because it is toxic to the environment and it is not biodegradable. Talk to your local recycling center about implementing a recycling program at your manufacturing plant. You will most likely be able to set up a recycling method in just a few short weeks. Most of the recycling centers will offer you the recycling bins for free as long as you bring the recyclable materials back to their center. Some companies even set up a delivery method and they will pick up your full bins each week.

There are literally hundreds of reasons why you need to start recycling at your manufacturing plant. Here are a few of them most important that will convince you as to why you need to start recycling:

• Plastic is a major source of environmental pollution and it is quite simple to recycle. Right now about 2.5 million plastic bottles are tossed into the garbage each hour instead of into the recycling bins.


• Paper is another product that is easy to recycle. About 2 pine trees are used by each American each year.


• Glass is easy to recycle and by recycling one ton of paper, you will save one ton of oil and other manufacturing tools needed to produce it.

Right now the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is cracking down on carbon dioxide and pollutants that are being thrown into the air from manufacturing plants. If you are contributing to global warming, you may face penalties from the EPA. Right now manufacturing aluminum goods contributes 95% more carbon dioxide than recycling aluminum. If you produce aluminum, you must focus more on recycling versus producing aluminum from raw goods. By focusing on recycling, you will be reward by the EPA and you can also use it in marketing efforts and other publicity items to show your customers how you are focused on the environment and you care about global warming.

Focusing on recycling can also help you cut your energy costs in half. Recycling products allows you to use less energy than you will to make them from raw. Changing your like bulb to 60 watts from 100 watts will cut down your energy bills as well.