Business Incentives for Recycling

The government, on both the state and federal levels, offers businesses incentives to make recycling a part of daily operations. Yoel Wazana, president of Micro Solutions Enterprises (MSE), a recycled toner cartridge company located in California, urges business owners to look into federal and state recycling programs so that they can save money and help the environment. Below are some different ways that your company can get involved.

Check out Tax Programs

Some states offer sales tax exemptions for companies that purchase various types of recycling machinery and equipment. Other states offer discounts on this type of equipment, sometimes making companies pay as little as 1% in sales tax. Some states even offer property tax exemptions for companies that recycle. Visit your state's business bureau website to see if you qualify for any tax breaks on your business's property, sales, or income tax.

Create an Internal Recycling Program

Many companies also create unique recycling programs internally to motivate employees to live more eco-friendly lifestyles. Over 80% of office trash can actually be recycled, and more and more businesses are catching onto that fact. To ensure the greatest cooperation from staff, business owners and managers should talk with employees and encourage them to participate.

Have a Special Committee

Most company owners will establish a recycling committee within the company. Individuals on the committee should support the sustainability message and also work to motivate co-workers to live a greener lifestyle. A kick-off party is a great way to inspire passion, encourage people, and ramp up the program. It's important to stress the importance of recycling and how, as a company, you can make a huge impact on reducing everyone's carbon footprint. Create a goal for employees to work towards -- have milestones and once they're hit, reward employees with things like free lunch, extra PTO time, etc. Get creative and your staff is likely to buy into the program. 

Make it Easy

It's also important to make recycling easy for everyone in the company by conveniently locating recycling bins throughout your locations. If you work in an office setting, start by getting enough recycling bins for each major area. People are more likely to recycle if it is convenient for them. Yoel Wazana suggests involving your staff and encouraging them to offer suggestions on how the program will work, so they feel invested.

Being green as a business is important because you create a larger carbon footprint. This footprint can be greatly diminished by getting involved in a recycling program and encouraging others to do so as well.