Feel like you’re constantly emptying the office trash or recycling bins? There might be other uses for your trash that you’ve never thought of. Check out the following lists for ways you can save space in the landfill and money in your bank account by reusing and repurposing common office waste.
Make your own magnets. Did you order too many at-a-glance calendars? The dates may be off by a year, but the magnetic backing is still perfectly good. Cut up the promotional calendars and adhere bottle caps, photos, or even binder clips to the front and instantly have magnets to adhere notes or photos to your white boards and other magnetic surfaces. If the office doesn’t have a need for that many magents, donate them to a school to use for craft projects.
Make your own packing material. If you ship packages from your office, you don’t have to spend money on bubble wrap. Shred the paper from your recycling bin (but nothing with sensitive information printed on it), and instantly have loads of packing material to keep the contents of your package safe during shipping.
Make your own notebooks. Cut up unneeded, one-sided printouts into half or quarter sheets and staple together to make little scrap paper notebooks for employees to keep on hand to jot down meeting notes or important information from a phone call. Then recycle those once the notes get transcribed on the computer.