Louise Gray, The Telegraph 9 Sep 08;
People are recycling more at home than at work despite the huge amount of waste generated by the office, a survey has found.
Britain has made great progress in increasing the amount of waste that goes to recycling in recent years, with almost a fifth of rubbish recycled - although the country still lags behind the rest of Europe.
However, in a survey of officer workers Today Paper Round, London's largest specialist office recycling company, found people are more keen to recycle at home than at work.
The survey of 100 officer workers in London found 58 per cent think they generate more recyclable waste at home and feel it is more important to recycle there.
Home is where most people start recycling and family and friends are the main influence on recycling behaviour rather than colleagues at work.
But with paper, cds, cups, cardboard, plastic and even computers able to be recycled it is estimated workers actually generate double the amount of waste at work than at home, according to Envirowise.
Bill Swan, director of Paper Round said: "Government and businesses need to make it easier for office workers to recycle.
"We are missing an opportunity to fulfil the real reasons why we recycle if we do not practice it at work as well as we do at home, which is to reduce our carbon footprint and to save natural resources."
