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What are the real benefits of recycling

What are the real benefits of recycling?

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You may have heard the phrase ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ and this is a key term associated with recycling that is used all over the globe. It refers to how we should be living more sustainably and how we can be more environmentally friendly in our everyday lives.

But that still leaves us with the question: Why should we recycle? There are so many benefits of recycling and in this blog, we are going to explore some of the most important benefits that recycling has on our environment.

 

Reduce the amount of waste going to landfill

Every day our population continues to grow and more and more waste is being produced and going to landfill which is causing a huge strain on our environment. This leads to an increased risk of pollution, poisoning and potential health problems. By continuing to recycle, little by little we can reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, as well as reduce the amount of space required for landfill sites.

 

Recycling creates more jobs

The recycling industry is huge and is much more labour intensive than solid waste management. In fact, Friends of the Earth said that if 70% of collected waste was recycled, it could create over 51,000 recycling jobs in the UK. Recycling is an integrated process that requires thousands of workers to sort and ship it to the right places.

 

Protecting wildlife

Sadly, it’s predicted that a truckload of plastic waste is poured into our oceans every minute which has detrimental effects. Not only can it take up to 200 years to decompose, it poses a huge threat to marine life and is also dangerous to birds who often mistake them as food.

Recycling reduces the need to extract new raw materials from the Earth which helps to reduce and prevent further damage being done to natural wildlife. For example, fewer forests being cut down which can harm wildlife in the process, fewer rivers being diverted and less air and water pollution.

 

Cheaper than waste collection

To put it simply, the more we recycle, the more money we save. In 2017, Lambeth council said that “it is six times cheaper to dispose of recycled waste than general refuse”. By recycling, we can put all the money that we save towards other vital elements within our economy such as households, business and public services. Recycling your food waste is also very beneficial as often it can be reused to generate compost for growing more food or crops.

 

Bring the community together

Whilst each and every one of us has a part to play in recycling, ultimately it should be a community effort. Whether you’re collecting materials for schools or picking up trash on the road, there are many ways that we, as a community, can work together to make recycling a much more enjoyable and easier process.

Most councils have now set up ‘recycling centres’ which make it easy as ever for the local community to recycle and most council websites also have free downloads to show you exactly what we can and can’t recycle and where it should go.

As we want recycling to become a part of our everyday life, this is also a great way to teach children about responsibility and taking a stance to help protect their environment.

 

As we’ve seen above, recycling is very important as waste has a huge negative impact on our natural environment. Not only does recycling help to reduce the pollution caused by waste, it reduces the need for raw materials so that our wildlife can be protected. As important as it is to recycle, we also need to focus on reducing the amount of plastic that we are using the first place.

At Quills, we are working hard to continue on our environmental journey and love to help our customers purchase more sustainably and reach their CSR targets. Why not be part of our journey and make a bigger impact? Get in touch today to see how we can help you become a greener business.

How Using A Professional Shredding Service Can Benefit Your Business

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Whether it’s paper, clothing or unwanted goods, shredding is a must for securely protecting sensitive items and business data. Client confidentiality should be a top business priority within your organisation but how can it be carried out efficiently when you have so many other priorities to focus on? Take a look at our article below to find out how outsourcing your shredding requirements can help your business.

  1. Save time and money

Why paid your skilled employees to stand there and shred for hours when they could be generating revenue for your business? Internal shredding routines are extremely time-consuming and have to be maintained on a daily or weekly basis. For example, shredding a single document can take several minutes and you have to be mindful of factors such as:

–    Straightening sheets of paper

–    Removing any paper clips or staples

–    Disposing of the shredded paper

–    Cleaning up any excess paper, paperclips or staples

Furthermore, you also have to take into consideration the cost of maintaining an internal shredding routine and often enough, this is a lot more expensive than outsourcing your shredding requirements. A small selection of managing your shredding in-house include:

–    Purchasing shredders

–    Buying disposal bags

–    Utility expenses

Sound familiar? Outsourcing your shredding can save an extensive amount of money for your business. Quills, can arrange a personalised audit of your office needs and provide a quotation which includes the frequency, number of bins and what you’ll be shredding.  There are no installation charges and the bin hire and replacement bags are free too!

 

2. Reduce the legal risk

With legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) all in full swing, it’s crucial that you keep client data confidential and safe during the disposal process.

Our secure shredding service is NAID AAA certified meaning that all destruction of your documents complies with the privacy protection policies outlined in the above legislation. In addition to this, we also provide a certificate of destruction so that you can be sure your data is safe in the right hands.

 

3. Maintain your businesses reputation

Reputation. One of the most important assets of a business. It’s very simple for your businesses confidential documents to get in the wrong hands and just like that, a data breach can happen and cause extreme worry and distrust.

When using a professional shredding service, all paper, media and products are collected and destroyed safely and securely. Constant monitoring, full CCTV coverage and an official certification of destruction are provided after every collection which means you can relax and focus on the more important things in your company.

 

4. Consider mobile shredding Services

If you’re considering outsourcing your shredding requirements but still have a concern about your information leaving the premises, then explore the possibility of using an on-site mobile shredding service. This ensures that all shredding is carried out on-site and gives you an opportunity to closely supervise what shredding is carried out and have absolute security.

Quills offer both on-site and off-site shredding service and can collect and shred data at your home or office. For more information, take a look at our secure data destruction brochure. 

 

5. Efficient recycling process

It’s well known that recycling has a positive impact on our environment but be careful as time and time again shredded material is often stolen with the hope of gaining access to confidential data.

Outsourced shredding services ensure that your personal information is secure at all times. All shredded goods are still recycled but without comprising confidentiality as it takes place in a locked and private building with constant surveillance and security.

To find out how Quills Secure Shredding Service can benefit your business, get in touch today and request your free quote. Alternatively, take a look at our latest brochure for some more information on our data destruction service.

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Quills Donates over £3,500 to The Disabilities Trust

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In the run-up to #GlobalRecyclingWeek we’d like to share an update on our Toner Recycling Programme where 100% of the proceeds go to charity.

We’re committed to ensuring we can help reduce the impact on the environment by recycling and this is why we introduced our Toner Recycling programme back in 2013. By collecting our customers used ink cartridges and sending them to our recycling partner generates a small amount of money which we pass onto our charity partner, The Disabilities Trust BIRT. The donation goes to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust (BIRT) which provide a fantastic centre where individuals who have suffered a brain injury can visit as part of their recovery plan.

We are delighted to share that we’ve raised a total of £3,607.91 since the start of this project in 2013 and that’s all down to our customers taking the time to recycle their used ink and toner cartridges. Last week we sent £527.44 to The Disabilities Trust BIRT Fundraising Manager, Hayley Wicker-Bradbury to pass onto the BIRT unit and we’d like to say a huge thank you to our customers for recycling with Quills.

We’d love to reach a fundraising target of £5,000 by the end of 2020 for BIRT charity so keep up the good work, keep recycling and we’ll share what great things these funds have helped pay for in our next update.