Methods to reduce waste at your company.

Category:
Small Business Energy Savings
Last updated:
August 29, 2025

Ways to Reduce Waste at Your Business

Looking for smart ways to reduce waste at your business? This can save you money, strengthen your brand and reputation and make a positive impact on the environment.

The average person generates 4.9 pounds of solid waste every day. By implementing waste reduction methods, you can cut disposal costs as you build trust in your community. We’ll cover each of the reasons to reduce waste in the workplace and provide tips for how to reduce waste in your business.

Jump to a section:

Why reducing waste is important for small businesses
Ways to reduce waste in the workplace
Tips for implementing waste reduction strategies
More resources for reducing waste in your business

Why reducing waste is important for small businesses

Finding ways to reduce waste in your business brings multiple benefits to your operation, such as:

Environmental benefits: Processing waste creates greenhouse gases, so reducing waste lowers your carbon footprint and helps your small business go green. Reusing or recycling removes material from the waste stream and maximizes the value of the inputs for creating those items.
Financial savings: When you put waste reduction methods into action, you also reduce your costs. With careful use and reuse, you can get maximum value out of what your company buys.
Meeting social responsibility goals: Social responsibility includes reducing waste, which is one of the most powerful ways to achieve small business sustainability goals and contribute to a healthier environment.
Increased brand value and reputation: Reducing business waste helps you build a reputation for caring for the environment, adding value to your brand.
Meeting regulatory compliance: Staying in line with federal, state and local environmental regulations ensures you don’t incur fines, penalties or damage to your reputation.
Easier reporting and information sharing: Many larger organizations and government entities require you to demonstrate your environmental responsibility with measurable results.

Ways to reduce waste in the workplace

Reducing, reusing and recycling are ways to cut the volume of waste your business produces. Here are specific ideas for how to further minimize waste:

Go paperless

Many businesses use more paper than you might imagine. With digital technology you may find many ways to go paperless in your small business. Besides reducing waste, going paperless can make your business more efficient. There will be less paperwork to push, documents to store, and important records to get lost.

Set up recycling bins

Your business can save energy with circular economy practices like reusing and recycling. Setting up bins to collect recyclables and keep them out of landfills is a good place to start. Make sure to provide signage to remind people what can and cannot be recycled and where each type of material should be placed.

Buy appliances that help reduce waste

Get rid of paper plates and plastic cutlery by installing a dishwasher. Choose the best coffee maker for your office, such as a drip coffee maker, which is more efficient than the small cups making individual servings. Install a water filter to eliminate bottled water. Add a countertop composter that turns food waste into a soil additive for your landscaping.

Recycle or refurbish your office equipment

Office equipment and electronics contain materials that can be toxic if thrown in with the regular trash. Unused or outdated equipment may be welcomed by charities. Many municipalities have collection points and special days for gathering old office equipment for recycling.

Donate surplus products or materials

Items your business no longer needs don’t have to go to waste. Surplus office supplies, outdated promotional items, extra building materials and more may be useful to local schools, shelters and nonprofits. Donating unneeded materials gives them a second life and also helps worthy causes in your community. It’s one of the simpler ways to reduce waste while giving back.

Conserve energy and water in the office

Energy-saving actions can also reduce waste. Switching to long-lasting and energy-efficient LED bulbs means you won’t have to replace the bulbs as often. There are several ways to save water in your business, including lowering your energy usage for pumping and heating it, fixing leaks, using low-flow fixtures and only running dishwashers on full loads.

Rethink and reduce packaging

You may be able to work with suppliers to reduce the cardboard and plastic used in packaging materials. Consider reusing their boxes for shipping out products. Examine your own product packaging and look for ways to reduce it or make it easier to recycle.

Purchase reusable products when possible

Instead of bottled water, buy employees reusable bottles with your company logo and offer unlimited, filtered water. Replace paper plates and plastic cutlery with washable plates, forks, knives and spoons. Hemp coffee filters can be reused hundreds of times. Put a stack of washable towels in the bathrooms to replace paper towels. Office supplies such as old binders, paper clips, interoffice folders and shipping supplies can be repurposed.

Encourage green commuting

Reduce your environmental footprint by encouraging employees to use public transportation, carpool or bike to and from work. Daily commutes are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and are the primary cause of congestion in urban areas. Offer subsidized transit passes, secure bike storage and preferred parking to carpoolers.

Promoting these practices contributes to a shared culture of sustainability. You not only reduce waste but also enhance employee morale.

Create recycling incentive programs

Recycling isn’t just limited to dealing with your organization’s direct waste. You can engage employees and customers to increase recycling. Make sure you have clearly labeled bins for paper, plastics, metals and electronics to encourage employee recycling. Consider discounts and credits for customers who return used packaging or bring back old products.

Reducing waste in these ways builds a sense of shared responsibility, with your brand leading the way.

Tips for implementing waste reduction strategies

Here are waste reduction strategies for running an environmentally friendly business:

1. Identify and measure your business’s waste

Conduct an audit of the amount and types of waste produced by your business. You must measure something to manage it. When you know more about your business’s waste, you can then figure out ways to reduce it, recycle it or cut costs for hauling it away. You may also find ways to employ energy savings tips, too.

2. Develop your waste reduction management plan

Creating a formal plan turns goals into action. With your objectives in hand and the information about your business waste, you can lay out practical steps. Your plan will cover how waste will be handled, how to reduce the amount of waste produced, and what to recycle. It can be part of your more comprehensive small business sustainability plan.

3. Create a budget, timeline and success metrics

Some methods to reduce waste may require an initial investment. Do the cost benefit analysis and budget the right amount to spend. Set timelines for specific milestones for your waste reduction strategies. Be sure to define what success looks like. Celebrate and publicize your achievements.

4. Encourage your employees to get involved

Getting employees involved in waste reduction is the key to a successful initiative. They often see inefficiencies in their specific roles that you might miss. For example, staff in shipping may have ideas for reducing packaging materials, while office staff may see ways to cut paper usage.

Involving everyone makes it easier to get everyone behind a plan and motivate them to participate. Continue to ask for ideas, share tips and reward efforts to make waste-saving a part of your workplace culture.

More resources for reducing waste in your business

Reducing waste is an important part of running a sustainable and efficient business. Here are additional resources to help your business grow while contributing to a cleaner environment:

Minimize waste and lower energy costs with Constellation

Minimizing waste and slashing your energy costs are good for business. Constellation can help you explore ways to lower small business energy bills and offers innovative energy solutions for small businesses. You can also evaluate your small business energy options.

Working together, we can reduce waste, cut costs and contribute to a healthier and more sustainable environment.