Simple Swaps for a Zero Waste Office
If you work from home, make the effort to create a little office, even in a bedroom or spare room. You can buy desks that fit flush against the wall when not in use (better for your back and neck).
Or use a bamboo laptop stand, which helps keep your bones in alignment, if you have to work at the kitchen table.
If you use plants in your office, know pet-toxic houseplants to avoid (sago palm, lilies etc). And remove if hot-desking with others. Don’t face indoor foliage to gardens, to help stop bird strike.
Go for leather-free swivel chairs, to save cows. IKEA and many other stores sell leather-free alternatives, along with affordable desks made from sustainable wood. Or go to second-hand stores (there are many online) that offer used office furniture, to stop it going to landfill.
You can buy recycled office furniture from Reyooz, to help save on quality items. 80% of office furniture goes to landfill or is burned, when most is in good condition. You can donate unwanted office furniture to CollectEco, which passes it onto good causes.
Also read our post on zero waste cables and chargers.
Where to Buy Sustainable Office Furniture
Coggins SOS is a super company located in Preston (the rainiest place in England!) These guys offer a wonderful service of collecting and recycling used office furniture, to sell on at low-cost to those that need it.
And if your office furniture is okay but could do with a bit of a makeover, specialists can refurbish existing office furniture, to save you money on buying new.
Not only is this good for business, but it’s good for public funds too. If large council offices buy everything new, that’s money that could be spent on creating walkable communities and free social care etc.
And of course recycling has a much lower carbon footprint, and doesn’t chop down more lovely trees! You’ll also save 50% to 80% of costs. And avoid disposal fees at landfill.
Recycled Furniture is Always Better
As well as being cheaper, it avoids huge amounts of waste at landfill. In the UK, offices throw out around 1.2 million desks and 1.8 million chairs each year. The average cost of landfill disposal of such items is £80 to £120 per ton.
So if you have 10 tons of furniture to dispose of, that’s around £1000 easily in costs. Tougher environmental regulations means you may even have to pay more than that.
Visit this company’s learning centre to find out how to refurbish existing furniture, and how to choose sustainable office furniture, on a small budget. You’ll also find free downloads:
- A smart guide to buying refurbished office furniture
- A furniture refurbishment checklist
- How to fill in landfill clearance forms correctly.
Feminine Recycled Office Accessories
Karenzo & Co is a lovely little company, which produces beautiful office accessories in all kinds of colours and styles (mostly ‘pretty pinks’ but there are also some darker paisley designs for less feminine offices).
Nearly everything is made from offcuts from the fashion industry, helping to upcycle items from one of the most wasteful industries.
The range includes pen holders, waste bins and file folders, along with notebooks made with recycled paper. The designs are screen-printed and finished with plant-based eco dyes and glues.
Hedgerow designs are printed on mulberry paper with images of native birds and florals. Moody Hues features dragonflies, ladybirds, bees and butterflies.
Office Accessories (from recycled newspapers)
These office accessories are all made from recycled newspaper, a great way to use up waste (the horrible smell at landfills is usually due to rotting paper).
- The pencil holders are also randomly unique, but you can ask for a colour theme and they will try to match it to your office. Handmade by a social enterprise in Sri Lanka, these are perfect to stash all your pens and pencils.
- The photo frames are in 2 sizes, with an attached stand to place the photos on portrait or landscape or a flat surface. There is no glass/plastic cover, nor fiddly hooks, just slots to slip photos in.
Office Accessories (from elephant dung!)
Paper High sells these beautiful notebooks with a difference. They are made from a blend of recycled paper and elephant dung!
Read more on how to save critically endangered elephants. Use with plastic-free ballpoint biros.
So each notebook has unique flecks, depending on what your elephant friend ate that day!
These notepads have a serious side. Abroad, wild elephants are often harmed, due to trampling on crops. So by paying local villagers to collect the dung, they see elephants as income opportunities (and friends) rather than competing for food.
And as the average elephant eats around the same as us chomping down 300 cans of baked beans each day, that’s a lot of dung!
Anglepoise Desk Lamps (with lifetime guarantees)
Anglepoise is a Portsmouth brand of desk lamps (around since 1932) that are quite pricey, but designed to last forever – indeed, each one is sold with a lifetime guarantee. An ideal investment for your office. Use with energy-efficient light bulbs.
Desk lamps are good for task lighting, especially in the evening with blinds pulled down. Combined near glass, this helps to stop birds flying into windows. Also never display indoor plants, to face outdoor gardens.
The Type 75 is a smart choice if you want a compact, tidy lamp that suits modern desks and daily work. Its footprint is small, yet the reach and articulation are generous, so you can pull the light in close for detail or push it back to wash a wider area. It works well with energy saving LED bulbs.
Care is simple. Wipe the lamp with a soft, dry cloth. If needed, a slightly damp cloth works for tougher marks. Avoid harsh chemicals, abrasives, or solvent cleaners that can damage paint, chrome, or brass detailing. Keep the cable untwisted and check the plug and switch for signs of wear.
Where to Recycle Unwanted Electronics
Where to Recycle Unwanted Electronics
If you have frayed unused cables, fill up a Zero Waste Bag from Terracycle with other hard-to-recycle goods (to make in something else). Or recycled at your local depot.
Don’t send unwanted electronics to Africa. In Gambia, Bakoteh rubbish dump is the most toxic in the world, housed with all the electronic trash we are encouraged to send over there, when we’ve finished with it here.
Because the laws are not so strict there, workers suffer pollution and injuries from processing the used phones and laptops that companies try to ship over there, a kind of ‘environmental racism’.
Know that if you buy something from a store, by law you should be able to take back the old/broken version to be recycled.
For the most part, you can recycle electrical items at your local refuse centre (the average person buys 3 new items a year so that’s a massive amount of electrical waste, if not recycled.
Don’t donate goods as they could be faulty. Many shops now offer take-back schemes (ask in-store, you don’t necessarily have to buy a new item in order to do this). Some local councils even accept small electrical goods in clear bags from kerbside, if it’s convenient.
Items that can be recycled include:
- Anything with a plug or charger (or has a picture of a crossed-out wheelie bin) along with items that use batteries (jewellers can recycled small batteries).
- Garden tools (mowers, shredders)
- Personal care items (hairdryers, shavers, electric toothbrushes)
- Small appliances (kettles, blenders, toasters)
- Toys, games, lamps, radios, CD/DVD players
- Phones, printers, cameras, torches
- Smoke alarms and vacuum cleaners
- Christmas tree lights
All of these items are classed as WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment). So cannot go in normal refuse bins. From January 2026, UK firms that until now have not contributed to the Environment Agency fund to collect and recycle electronic goods (washing machines, vacuum cleaners, radios) must now do so, by reporting how many items they sell to consumers, to ensure they pay their fair share.
Charities like Donate a PC often refurbish old hardware for reuse.
