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No trash cans for Google employees
Google’s London office has made several eco-friendly changes, including the removal of trash cans at employees’ desks.
Wed, Jun 03 2009 at 11:53 AM
Recently, Google has made several eco-conscious changes at its London office. One of the more creative changes Google implemented is the removal of trash cans from individual employee desks. Instead of simply tossing away garbage without a second thought, employees now have to get up and walk to a centralized disposal and recycling station. This small change has led to an increase in onsite recycling -- if the employee is already walking to the disposal center, it is easy to make the decision to recycle the waste.
After an after-hours check of employee computers, Google implemented an educational program to help employees understand the energy benefits of powering down their computers at night. This is a low-cost way to save Google money and reduce the company’s carbon footprint.Google’s removal of employee trash cans is an ingenious idea. It costs nothing for a business to remove the item and direct employees to a centralized disposal/recycling location. This one little step led to a significant increase in recycling rates at the company, 50 percent, and helps Google meet its green initiative goals.
via [Green Inc]
Photo by Todd Baker << technowannabe
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The majority of us posting comments most liely don't work for Google. My guess is that those who do are free to find other employment, whenever the any down sides ofworking for Google ever outweigh the good points
Google employees subjected to this idiocy should save a week's worth of snotty tissues, put them in an interoffice envelope, and then send the envelope to the cretin whose idea this was.
Adobe has done this for a long time. Individual offices have recycling and composting bins (which can take the used kleenexes!) but anything else has to be taken to the trash bin in the break room.
I work at Google Mountain View, where they reduced the number of garbage cans. A consequence is that used tissues sit on people's desks because they'd have to stop what they're doing and get up to throw them out, rather than being able to immediately discard them in a bin by their desk. I'm all for reducing waste, but it hasn't had that effect for me: just increasing germs and distracting people from work. (It takes a while for a programmer to get in the zone.)
I used to have my own recycle bin right at my desk, no snotty napkins for me, and I did recycle much more from doing that. Very simple and easy, and a constant reminder to recycle, as it was so close.
Wow, that last comment was sarcastic and uncalled for. I think it's a great thing. I am continually unnerved by the amount of trash that is wasted in our office. All my efforts to nudge "the boss" into printing less and throwing away less has been to no avail. Very frustrating.
Most of the waste offices generate is paper. If you can put the paper straight in a recycling bin at your desk it saves time and trees.
Yep, definitely a no brainer idea that makes a huge difference. It would be good if all homes and offices could adopt a similar idea to take away the 'convenience' of throwing things away (to a place that doesn't actually exist - have you ever stopped to think where 'away' is?!)
We've written about this several times on our site about reducing landfill waste:
http://myzerowaste.com/2009/05/one-simple-step-to-reduce-your-household-...
This is old news for Google as in our 3 Santa Monica offices, We have been doing this for over a year now!
This is great for raising awareness about the volume of garbage each of us produces, as well as improving that part of our environuman impact. I wonder if Google should couple the program with health tests to see if there is any measurable difference in this group of employees' health from the extra exercise over the course of a year.
Just imagine.
Next thing you know, Google will remove the toilets from their buildings, as an effort to reduce water consumption. Employees will then have to either wait until they get home to go to the bathroom, wander outside and find a tree, or use their supervisor's desk as a urine and fecal receptical.