Recent assessments of the office waste stream has identified that over 50% of the waste in our rubbish bins is recyclable (cans, glass and plastic bottles, tins and paper). It also determined that most bins are never full when emptied by cleaners. The “no bin” initiative has been successfully adopted at other Australian universities. Because it focuses on recycling waste, it isn't unusual to reduce personal office waste by over 50% since a lot of waste comes from paper which can be recycled.

The benefits to a "no bin initiative" are:

• high recycling rates
• significantly reducing plastic liner use
• reduces waste volume to landfill
• provides feedstock to recycled product manufacturers
• recycled products require considerably less energy and water during manufacture
• encourages compliance with Occupational Health and Safety guidelines which suggest that staff should take a break from their desk every thirty minutes in order to stretch muscles and rest eyes.
• reducing cleaning time and costs as cleaners are freed from emptying individual waste bins after bin removal, they may be able to empty paper recycling boxes in the future.

However, at this stage paper recycling is not in the cleaning contract and staff are responsible for emptying their own paper recycling boxes into the large wheelie bins.

A “no bins” initiative in your office means that no staff will have their own individual rubbish bin. Instead staff will share a common workgroup waste-to-landfill bin and recycling bin between colleagues. Staff will keep their own box for recycling paper waste and the initiative requires that each staff member empties their under-desk paper bin in the nearest 240 litre "blue bin" paper recycling bin when full. It also requires the staff to empty their recyclables bin into the 240 litre "red bin" when full. The cleaners will only empty the communal rubbish bins.