Half of workers ‘unhappy with colleagues’ recycling’

HALF of Irish workers are infuriated by their colleagues’ bad recycling habits but only one in three will confront offenders.

Research for Repak has found that one in three workers believe recycling in the office is not their responsibility and one in three do not think about recycling at work.

More worrying, it found that people are recycling from fewer places and recycling items less often in the workplace.

Recycling habits have worsened in the past year despite the fact that eight out of 10 workers claim to have access to some sort of recycling collection.

Seven out of 10 who participated in the survey, published today — the start of Repak Recycling Week — admitted that they recycled more at home than at work.

And half of the 1,000 people who participated in the survey are not recycling regularly when in the office kitchen, compared to 2% of those in the home kitchen.

Plastic-bottle recycling rates in the office fell from 58% in 2010 to 41% this year, while drink cans fell from 47% to 35%.

And, surprisingly, only a third of people claimed to regularly recycle office paper in the workplace, compared to 57% last year.

However, the study found that recycling around the home is improving with people recycling from more rooms — recycling from the bathroom, at 53%, is up from 43% in 2010, and recycling in the bedroom increases from 30% to 35%.

Also, 48% of all households are using brown bins for organic kitchen waste, up from 19% in 2008.

Repak chief executive, Andrew Hetherington, said that the latest research revealed a split in Irish peoples’ recycling personalities between work and home.

“It is ironic that while most people recycle at home, they unintentionally abdicate responsibility in the workplace. It is almost as if the work-life balance has split their recycling personality,” he said.

Mr Hetherington said companies could do more to encourage people to recycle more, by educating them and showing them that it is their responsibility in the workplace.

“By educating your own employees as to how to recycle more in the workplace, employers can improve staff morale and, importantly, help reduce their waste costs.”

* Visit Repak.ie or Recyclemore.ie to find out more about the week.