Offices across Australia are being asked to register for the “Friday File Fling” to support environmentally-responsible workplace spring cleans during National Recycling Week.
The event is taking place on Friday 11 November as part of National Recycling Week. Campaign organiser Planet Ark is urging employers to give their staff time to sort through filing cabinets and desk drawers for redundant documents that can be recycled and to “fling” their old files responsibly.
“Friday File Flings tick many boxes: they bring staff together to de-clutter offices and provide an opportunity to do some serious recycling,” says Ryan Collins, Recycling Programs Manager at Planet Ark. “Our website businessrecycling.com.au has a raft of ideas to help workplaces take recycling action, including drop-off points, industry supported programs like ‘Cartridges 4 Planet Ark’ and MobileMuster, and a range of other materials.”
Planet Ark says paper is the largest contributor to solid waste generated by Australian workplaces. Although the recycling rate for office paper is 68 per cent, less than 18 per cent of new office paper includes recycled content. To address this anomaly, it has just launched a new 100 per cent recycled Planet Ark Paper.
“Most Australian workplaces recycle paper but we are encouraging them to help close the recycling loop by making the switch to Australian-made recycled paper too,” said Paul Klymenko, CEO of Planet Ark.
Planet Ark Paper is produced at Australian Paper’s state-of-the art recycling plant at Maryvale in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. The award-winning facility can divert up to 80,000 tonnes of wastepaper from Australian landfills each year. The not-for-profit organisation is encouraging businesses to buy recycled products to help close the recycling loop and create demand for them.
“Making the switch to Australian-made recycled paper, like Planet Ark’s new 100 per cent recycled, FSC-certified, carbon neutral paper, has both environmental and economic benefits and helps normalise recycled products, which these days are every bit as good as their non-recycled equivalents,” added Mr Collins.
Councils and businesses across Australia are set to hold a wide range of activities for National Recycling Week, which runs 7 to 13 November. Well-known industry names among this year’s campaign supporters include the Australian Packaging Covenant, Bingo Bins and ‘Cartridges 4 Planet Ark’. Councils and environment and sustainability managers wanting more details on how to participate in this year’s campaign with their colleagues and customers, can find more details at recyclingweek.planetark.org.