America Recycles Day
Affinity Express believes strongly in recycling and promotes respect for the environment in all our company locations. For example, at our Elgin Headquarters, we have bins for plastics and paper and have even donated collected cans and bottles to local charities as part of their fund-raising drives.
Recently, we conducted a contest to design a reusable tote bag to reduce the use of paper and plastic grocery bags. The winning design was selected, the bags were produced and are now on their way to our India and Philippines offices to be distributed to employees.
Previously, we had a similar contest to design tumblers so fewer disposable coffee cups would be used by our employees. There has been a positive impact and we have ordered 30% fewer cups to date.
We’ve learned that recycling and environmental awareness is a state of mind and continually look for different opportunities, even small ones.
- We launched the Affinity Express Learning Center to enable training online and are now benefiting from a significant reduction in printed courseware.
- We suggest to employees that they limit printing of documents whenever possible and share industry publications, versus our ordering multiple subscriptions. Even better, we encourage using electronic editions.
- Office and cleaning supplies are selected based on whether they have less harmful ingredients or can have recyclable ingredients.
- Around the upcoming holidays, we are also considering a book exchange in our office since all of us haven’t invested in e-readers yet!
At home, online banking and electronic bill payments have saved quite a bit of paper (not to mention postage) for my family. It took me a while to adapt, but now trash is carefully sorted into categories for recycling. We also opt for products that are made from recycled materials or use less packaging—especially cosmetics and electronics. For the first time, my family has a vegetable garden planned for next spring and we’re going to start composting as part of the project.
Do you have any great ideas for recycling at your office or tips for Affinity Express? In the meantime, I hope you enjoy some of our vector artwork and embroidery digitizing designs around the theme.