RPS Consulting Engineers, part of the RPS Group Plc., is a Civil and Environmental Engineering Consultancy employing over 300 employees in Dublin, Cork and Galway. Environmental and waste management specialists, the company developed an in-house waste management system in its own offices in 1999.In four years the initiative has not only survived staff expansion and a change of location but has bloomed and expanded. Associate Conall Boland helped to set up and currently coordinates the plan at Carnegie House, Dun Laoghaire.
An initial survey of waste generated showed 250 kilos of office paper, 200 kilos of newsprint, 150 kilos of kitchen waste, 100 kilos of plastic, plus plastic bottles and aluminium cans.
"Start up costs of €400 paid for the extra office bins and the paper recycling bin - the biggest outlay."
Next, they began a paper minimisation regime, using more e-mail and intranet for communication, setting printers to single rather than double space, using both sides of the page when printing, reusing envelopes and recycling paper for notes and scribbling.
Step three was to set up their own Waste System Streams. Today there is a blue and a black bin beside each desk, blue for paper and card for recycling, black for non-recyclable stationary. Envelopes with plastic window insets cannot be recycled, pointing to the need for more mono-material products.
The office canteen is a model of waste management practice. Along one wall are separate labeled bins for paper, cardboard, washed glass, aluminium cans, and plastic bottles. Nearby is a food waste bin for composting left over food scraps, excluding meat, fish and dairy products as these can attract vermin. The residual waste bin holds non-recyclable food and non-food items.
Elsewhere there is a disposal point for batteries and fluorescent tubes. Recyclable printer cartridges are donated to Temple Street Children's Hospital, which benefit from a recycling project. A notice at reception beside the water cooler invites guests to use the disposable beakers provided but asks staff to use their own cups. Their yard has their newspaper-recycling bin, and two compost bins where the process of composting is speeded by the introduction of worms bought on the Internet. A locked bay in the car park holds separated and bagged waste awaiting collection recycling or disposal.
The company is now recycling 78% of its waste, while staff are using the compost on their own gardens and for fertilising office greenery.
