By Dunstan Carter
"All human beings... are commingled out of good and evil." – wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886.
Little did he know how accurate that quote would prove to be when levelled at UK workers’ attitudes to recycling and the environment in 2006.
According to a new report, commissioned by Envirowise, most workers are environmentally friendly at home but frequently waste water and paper when they are in the office.
The report also claims that firms could save up to 32 million litres of water and a billion sheets of paper every day if people were as eco-friendly at work as they are at home.
Envirowise, which promotes eco-friendly business practices, said one in three workers do nothing to cut back on the use of water or paper. A survey of almost 2,000 adults revealed that one in five recycle nothing in the office and one in seven has no idea how much paper they use every day.
The report also claims that offices across the UK are needlessly wasting around 310 million litres of water every single working day.
Electricity is also wasted, with very few offices installing energy-efficient light bulbs and with many computers being left on overnight. Inkjet cartridges are also rarely recycled – which is a global problem with more than 1.1 billion cartridges being used annually around the world.
It doesn’t take a genius to realise that all this waste is becoming a major problem and one that the UK has to address.
In her 1975 book, A Gift for God, Mother Theresa wrote, “I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use.”
So, WAKE UP BRITAIN, and start recycling in the workplace. You wouldn’t want to upset the ghost of Mother Theresa would you? Thought not!
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