What Happens to Your Office Waste After It’s Collected?

Unless you’re working asynchronously, most Aussies spend their time in offices. This means you have a hand in the country’s 32.8 million tonnes of commercial waste. That’s a huge chunk of Australia’s 75.6 million tonnes of collected waste in 2020-21.

Once thrown in the curbside bins, you might think less about the heaps of paper or ink cartridges you disposed of. Or even your old office table and chairs after getting brand-new ones. Disposing of your office rubbish doesn’t need to be a mystery. 

Knowing what happens to office trash after it’s tossed is essential. Especially if you’re serious about making your business spaces more sustainable. But what are the merits of improving your office waste disposal process?

It offers a myriad of incentives. Enhancing sustainability practices enables your business to comply with evolving environmental regulations. It also helps your business by increasing social impact and reducing operating costs. 

But before achieving those, you must have a rigid understanding of the waste handling process. Learn more about this process, particularly recycling and eco-friendly practices.

Collection of Office Waste

Tossing your office rubbish goes a long way, not only in your bins. But how massive is the amount of rubbish that touches your bins first? According to the National Waste Report, a single Australian generates 2.95 tonnes of waste. That’s as heavy as an average car weighs!

It’s easy to get familiar with how these piles of rubbish are collected in your office daily. A haulier picks up and sends your office waste to a transport station or a landfill. However, assessing your office waste is important so you can make guided decisions about waste management.

To do that, you must understand the type, quantity and frequency of rubbish your office generates. First, know what a professional rubbish removal service typically collects from offices. These include:

• Paper comprises 76% of commercial office waste collected in NSW. It includes documents, printer paper, cartons, cardboard boxes, etc.
• Plastic - Plastic bottles, containers, and packaging materials are frequently generated in offices.
• E-waste - requires special attention due to hazardous components from computers, printers and phones.
• General rubbish consists of miscellaneous items such as food waste, glass, cleaning supplies, and disposable items. 
• Furniture - including bulky items like damaged office chairs, sofas, desks, cupboards, etc.

But how long could these wastes be transported? It depends on the volume of office waste that could be transported a few miles or farther. Often, it takes shorter when near a licensed site. 

Specialised vehicles often handle this collected trash. Once it arrives in processing facilities, waste sorting begins so your office waste gets recycled. At worst, it’s disposed of, ending up in landfills.

Sorting and Separation

A waste transfer station sorts rubbish so it gets to its appropriate destination, either in recycling facilities or landfill sites. Metrically sorting your office garbage can be done through manual separation or advanced sorting technologies—often a combination.

While it’s still prevalent, a traditional sorting process is labour-intensive. Workers wear hazmat suits and face protection to avoid health risks. Fully equipped, they manually separate rubbish into various categories, such as recyclables (paper, plastic, glass, furniture, etc.) and non-recyclables (hazardous materials, etc.). 

But separating plastics, papers, or other waste can be challenging. Often, some polymer types from plastics are indistinguishable from human eyes. That’s why automated sorting uses AI (artificial intelligence) to separate recyclables from general waste efficiently. 

In perspective, once the workers load the collected rubbish, it passes down an optical sensor. These sensors use NIR (near infrared) light so the AI systems can sort plastics from the polymer they’re made of, or even further sort types of paper, glass, e-waste, and other office rubbish. 

With machine learning, AI systems deepen their ability to identify more complex waste components. This makes sorting more efficient, accurate, faster, and safer, particularly when handling unpleasant, hazardous wastes (medical, e-waste, etc.). After sorting things out, robotic automation puts sorted rubbish into its respective bins. 

Recycling and Reuse

After meticulously sorting recyclables, they are sent to specialised recycling facilities. This gives your office recyclables a second life. In most cases, your old or slightly damaged office furniture is sent to thrift stores, donation centres, or repurposed.

Often, reusing only works if the items are in tip-top condition. But for most recyclables, each of it undergoes specific treatments, transforming into a new product. Here’s how each item gets recycled:

Paper Recycling

About 62% of paper waste gets recycled in Australia. This means putting less pressure on the country’s forests for fibre resources. But how do these paper wastes get recycled? Here’s how:

• Collection & Sorting—Once the piles of paper are collected, they will be sorted by type and grade (e.g., into newspaper, mixed paper, cardboard, etc.).
• Pulping - This includes soaking the sorted paper in water to break it down into fibres. 
• Cleaning—Varying contaminants need to be removed from the paper. This includes ink, plastic film, glue, and staples.
• De-inking - While other contaminants can be easily removed, eliminating ink from the pulp often requires certain chemicals.
• Screening - Paper passes through a series of screens to remove any remaining impurities.
• Paper machine - This is where the cleaned pulp forms into a new sheet of paper, gliding through rollers and drying sections of the paper machine. 

Plastic Recycling

Across the country, only 9% of plastic waste was up for recycling. At the same time, the rest are compressed in landfills. This is mainly due to the inefficient, hazardous and expensive recycling process. Below explains this process: 

• Collection & Sorting—Plastic collected from offices, homes, and other places is often sorted by type (thermoplastics, elastomers, thermosets, and bioplastics).
• Cleaning - Once sorted, cleaning these is important to remove contaminants.
• Shredding - Then, industrial machines shred plastic into smaller pieces. 
• Melting - These smaller pieces of plastic undergo a machine and melt into a liquid form. This phase often creates hazardous fumes that pose health risks. 
• Moulding - Molten plastic passes through extruders, forming pellets or new products depending on its type. 

Metal Recycling

Metals have the highest recycling rate at around 90% of all recyclables. This greatly reduces the need for new mining operations. And here’s how metals get recycled, appearing in most of your office setups:

• Collection & Sorting—Metal collection is often labour-intensive and requires heavy equipment. The collected metals must be sorted by type (e.g., aluminium, steel, copper, etc.). 
• Shredding or Compacting—Sorted metals are then shredded or compacted so they do not take up much space on the conveyor belt. 
• Melting—Because metals have different melting points, adjusting the large furnace temperature is necessary to melt specific metals. 
• Purification - After melting, the process ensures the metals are impurities-free. Purification methods vary depending on the metal types. 
• Casting or Rolling—Molten metal goes to a cooling chamber after purification. At this stage, it is cast or rolled into new products. Typically, steel is cast into blocks, while aluminium is turned into sheets. 

E-Waste Recycling

E-waste is a considerable challenge to most offices due to their extensive reliance on computers, gadgets, and an infinite number of electronic or electrical devices. To put this into numbers, an average Aussie produces at least 20 kg of e-waste.

That’s a lot compared to the global average of 7 kg of e-waste. But out of 539,000 tonnes of e-waste produced annually, the country recycles half of it. This is how e-waste typically gets recycled:

• Collection - Dumped e-waste, often collected from commercial offices, is transported to recycling facilities. 
• Data Destruction—This is often handled before throwing away any e-waste. However, recycling facilities also securely destroy data stored on electronic devices to protect sensitive information.
• Disassembly is crucial to separating valuable components like metals, plastics, and circuit boards from hazardous materials like mercury, lead, and other heavy metals.
• Hazardous Materials Removal - Safe disposal of hazardous materials must follow environmental regulations. 
• Component Recovery - Extracted valuable components get recycled or reused often to create new electronic devices or products.

Disposal of Non-Recyclable Waste

Unfortunately, not all office rubbish gets recycled. This includes your non-recyclable waste, mostly sent to landfills. Contrary to most misconceptions, modern landfills ensure the safe disposal of non-recyclables. 

But how? Modern landfills use strategic drainage systems and complex layers of landfill liners, which prevent harmful chemicals from leaking into the surrounding environment. 

Once the landfill is full, it’s covered with at least two feet of soil to promote natural decomposition. And this also traps non-recyclable debris, keeping the environment away from contaminants.

In some cases, office waste might reach waste-to-energy plants. These plants completely incinerate waste into ash, turning your rubbish into something useful. The heat produced from the combustion process will be used to generate electricity. 

A series of filtration takes place, removing harmful particles from gases and ashes released during the process. Doing this diverts more waste from landfills.

However, finding approved facilities and transporting your office waste can be challenging. As a leading service provider in New South Wales, All Gone Rubbish Removals can help. Its decade-long track record ensures that all non-recyclable waste is disposed of, complying with stringent environmental regulations.

How All Gone Rubbish Removals Supports Sustainability

All Gone Rubbish Removals commits to sustainability by minimising the environmental impact of waste disposal. Here are some of our eco-friendly practices to support your office spaces:

• High Recycling: We prioritise recycling more than anything to bolster business sustainability goals and ensure a lasting impact on the community and environment.
• Responsible Disposal: Non-recyclable commercial office waste must be disposed of responsibly. We follow strict environmental regulations to minimise landfill contributions.
• Partnerships with Recycling Centres: We work closely with recycling centres to ensure all heaps of rubbish we collect are processed safely, efficiently and effectively. 

Working with a reputable industry leader is the first step to reducing your office’s environmental footprint. To encourage businesses to improve their office waste management, we offer the following tips:

• Set Up Recycling Stations—Consider strategically placing recycling bins for various materials in your office. These bins must be in convenient locations so employees can use them at all times.
• Promote Reusable Items - Encourage everyone to use reusable items like mugs, water bottles, utensils and lunch containers to reduce disposable waste in your office.
• Composting - Consider setting up a composting program to divert more rubbish from landfills if possible. 
• E-Waste Management—Implement procedures for handling and recycling electronic waste to prevent its hazardous materials from affecting people and the environment. 
• Educate Employees - Provide thorough information about recycling guidelines, proper waste separation and the significance of reducing waste. This can be incorporated into in-office events, ensuring these practices become a habit inside and outside of offices.

Office rubbish undergoes a long journey from the initial collecting and sorting to recycling and disposal. All Gone Rubbish Removals ensure that this complex journey is carried out responsibly. By partnering with us, we ensure that we handle commercial office waste safely and efficiently while adhering to sustainable best practices. 

Contact All Gone Rubbish Removals to learn more about our fast, reliable, eco-friendly office waste removal services. Call us at 0427 783 277 so you can start contributing to a cleaner, greener future!