In the Office

Much of the work involved in screen production is office-based. As with any business there are environmental impacts associated with the day-to-day activities of an office. These are usually energy use, transportation, waste generation in particular electronic waste, and water consumption. Screen production offices are no different. Below are suggestions for improving the sustainability of your office.

Waste and recycling

Measure the amount of waste going to landfill and know what waste you produce by undertaking a waste audit.
Set targets for diverting waste from landfill and provide regular feedback to staff on progress.
Provide staff with adequate facilities for recycling paper, glass, aluminium, plastic and cardboard.
Raise staff awareness about recycling facilities in the office and on location.
Collect organic waste and convert it to compost in a composting bin or worm farm.
Support products with recycled content over those made from virgin materials.
Ask suppliers to take back packaging for large items such as computers and furniture.
Where possible reduce, repair and reuse materials - recycle as a last option.
Recycle printer cartridges.
Recycle redundant computers, monitors and printers.
Return redundant mobile phones, batteries and paint to retailers for recycling.
Dispose of any hazardous waste safely.
Burning and burying waste result in methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, two of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Aside from climate change other environmental impacts of burning and burying waste include air, water and soil contamination and a loss of productive land for landfills, not to mention the loss of resources that could have been reused or recycled. As consumers we need to broaden our definition of waste from the day to day items that we discard at work and at home, to include the waste that is created during the manufacture and processing of the products we purchase. The screen industry is a large generator of waste. Most of what we see on screen has been created for that purpose only and then disposed of e.g. set construction and demolition. For the screen industry to tackle waste consideration needs to be given to all production inputs at the pre planning stage with a focus on avoiding waste in the first instance.
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