The Eco-Friendly Workspace: Easy Swaps for a Zero Waste Office
Here are some tips on how to build a zero-waste office. Also see our office tag for more on zero waste charging cables and where to recycle e-waste and eco-friendly notebooks.
Use desk lamps with lifetime guarantees (these prevent light pollution and offer task lights, to help prevent birds flying into windows – also don’t face indoor foliage to outside gardens).
If you have office plants, know pet-toxic houseplants to avoid (sago palm, lilies etc). And remove if hot-desking with others.
Where to buy recycled office furniture
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.
IKEA and many other stores sell leather-free swivel chairs and 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. 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.
Coggins SOS (Preston, the rainiest place in England) can collect and recycle office furniture, to sell on at low-cost to those who need it. 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.
Plastic-free water for the office
Belu is an amazing social enterprise, which offers filtration systems for industry, and uses profits to help provide clean water in Global South countries. Just imagine is everyone switched over, what good it could do?
The company offers a range of machines, and can provide filtered water both front and back of house, with marketing materials and user instructions for staff. It also offers water dispensers for offices, meeting rooms, restaurants and restrooms.
There are options for chilled, still, sparkling and hot water available. Free-flowing filtered water also can boost revenues, as you will not be buying in bottled water for your business.
Over 700 million people in the world have no access to clean safe drinking water, with around one million women and babies dying each year, due to lack of clean places to give birth. Every 2 minutes a child under 5 dies, from diarrhoea caused by dirty water. And climate change is making things worse.
Frank Water also offers filtered water stations for wholesale, with profits to provide clean safe water in developing countries, mostly for children in India.
Never give sparkling water to to pets, it could cause bloat.
Although tap water in England is perfectly safe, many people choose bottled water whether that’s for travel, at the gym or in emergencies when there is no tap around. But most shops sell an array of confusing bottled waters in various packaging.
How do you know which one is best to buy? In short, choose water that is locally-sourced (not shipped by plane from Fiji) in sustainable bottles that are easy to reuse and recycle.
Look for bottled water in aluminium cans or glass. Although many brands are now in recycled plastic, when littered they still fall down drains and break into microplastics in the sea, accidentally ingested by marine creatures.
How much water should we drink?
The average adult needs around 1.2 litres per day (more in hot weather or after vomiting or diarrhoea). That’s around six 200ml glasses. So drink two glasses when you wake up, have two more before lunch, and two more before dinner. Add more per glass of wine or beer, or per tea, coffee or cola.
Wash and rinse pet bowls daily. Avoid fizzy water or guzzling water after runs or car trips (both could cause bloat). Don’t let pets drink from puddles (due to bacteria, oil, antifreeze). For outdoor pets, ensure drip-feed bottles are not blocked or frozen.
Belu (office bottled/canned water to help others)
Belu offers glass bottled or cans of mineral water, with profits helping to bring clean safe water to people abroad.
Or you can opt for plumbed-in water filters, to avoid packaging altogether.
Before recycling cans, rinse then remove lids (pop ring-pulls over holes). Then use your fingers/thumb to ‘pinch’ inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
A Portable Bamboo Laptop Stand (prevent bad necks!)
If you work from home or on-the-move but don’t have access to a proper desk with ergonomic chair, it’s likely that sometimes you get an achy neck or back, from leaning over at the wrong angles.
Dragonfly Laptop Stand is made from eco-friendly bamboo, and is designed to ensure you sit with your posture in the correct position, so you can work safely without aches and pains. It basically eliminates ‘laptop hunch’ which we all do when we’re working from a sofa, by providing better spinal alignment. And raising your ‘eye to screen’ level.
It’s also idea if you work on a train or a coffee shop, and is perfect for digital nomads. By eliminating the 60-degree neck flex (common with laptop use), this also reduces pressure on cervical vertebrae and shoulder muscles, which causes discomfort when hunched over a computer.
Helps Prevent Laptop Overheating
The Dragonfly stand also improves airflow around your device. This prevents thermal throttling, extends laptop lifespan and can also help to prevent ‘toasted skin syndrome’ if your face gets hot from working on laptops.
Made responsibly by a small European firm, set-up takes seconds. It accommodates most laptops including MacBooks and ThinkPads. It is designed to be compatible with a computer mouse, and is sold in 5 colour options.
It’s not recommended for use on soft surfaces like beds or couches or soft uneven surfaces (it’s not good anyway to use warm laptops on these, as a fire risk due to hot air underneath.
Laptop Sleeves (made from Amsterdam market covers!)
Unbegun is a unique brand from The Netherlands, making funky colourful laptop sleeves, made by upcycling the tarpaulins used at Amsterdam street markets.
If you travel with your laptop, it’s important to keep it protected, so it lasts. These covers are great, because they are tough enough to withstand Dutch weather and wind, so provide the ultimate protection.
Available in many sizes and designs, there are versions to protect MacBooks and others. They are also pretty water-repellent.
Some are also full of stories, so you can even see what kind of product the cover was protecting, before your laptop! They also feature cushioning foam and limestone neoprene lining, and a YKK zipper with rubber-end pull. Handmade in Amsterdam.
Muggi Office Cup Holders (made from fishing waste)
Muggi makes cup holders sold with an 88-year guarantee! Perfect for offices, they are also good for caravans and boats (sturdy and comfortable, to keep drinks save on choppy waves).
Ghost fishing gear makes up 10% of ocean waste, killing hundreds of thousands of marine creatures. Volunteer to help remove ghost fishing waste.
This simple invention is just great! The inventor has ensured that older and disabled people can use it (including people with cerebral palsy, to avoid dangerous spills).
It’s sold worldwide, and one of those ‘aha’ inventions that could not only help to use up the mountains of collected fishing waste, but keep people safe from burns.
We like Sanctuary Coffee (profits help animal sanctuaries!) Avoid caffeine for pregnancy/nursing (NHS says if you do drink it, no more than 1 cup of mild coffee or cola, or 2 cups of weak tea daily). Also avoid caffeine for affected medical conditions (like insomnia!)
Swishing coffee grounds into sinks could clog drains, so use a SinkShield.
You can bin coffee grounds and tea leaves in food waste bins (usually broken down by anaerobic digestion). If you don’t have one, just bin them (acids could harm compost creatures – same for rhubarb/tomato/citrus scraps and allium scraps – onion, garlic, shallots, leeks and chives).
Quality Recycling Bins (for businesses & offices)
Red Gorilla Recycling Bins are the quality bin of choice now for small businesses, with new legislation (from 31 March 2025) making firms employing 10 or more staff, responsible for separating waste, for recycling.
Read our post on how to recycle (almost!) everything.
Business with 10 or more staff now need to separate their waste into:
- Paper & Card
- Glass & Metals (including foil)
- Food waste
The same law now applies to non-domestic premises like:
- Schools
- Hospitals
- Nursing Homes
- Places of Worship
- Hotels
Sold in 5 colours, these bins feature clip lids to secure, and are in 3 sizes:
- 30 L
- 50 L
- 80 L
You can also download free recycling labels, to attach. Trade orders are welcome, just open an account.
Businesses are now looking to invest in better recycling bins, and these tick all the boxes:
- Colour codes makes for easy sorting
- They have clip-lids to keep contents secure
- They are weatherproof
- They are easy to clean and rinse with soapy water.
- They are easy to carry (2 simple handles)
- They are resistant to UV rays and frost (made from high-density polyethylene )
- They are easy to store (the cylindrical design lets them be pushed into corners, or under desks or worktops).
- Can be stacked when not in use (ideal for large businesses that have a lot of bins).
If recycled materials are not sorted properly, they often end up mixed on landfills, and some waste (food scraps etc) end up decomposing and running off into surrounding soil.
Decaying waste also releases toxic gases, the whole point of avoiding landfills in the first place.
