Commercial Recycling

I recently started working as an office assistant in a growing company. We rent an office space in the ASU research park in Tempe. During my first week I experienced a bit of a “culture shock” one might call it. At home and at school I am accustomed to recycling absolutely everything that is recyclable, however here in the office everything is thrown away. We generate so much paper, I can only guess at the total amount, but I would estimate that it is at the very least 100 pounds a day just from our one office (there are about a dozen other businesses with offices in our building and a few dozen buildings in the research park.) I would say that perhaps 90% - 95% of what we throw away in our office is recyclable and about 80% of that is either paper or cardboard. The only thing that is not recyclable is probably food waste from lunch breaks. In an office like ours, or any other the other offices in the building, we could probably have only one trash can for the whole office and put recycling bins in place of all the other current trash cans. I discussed the serious need for a recycling program with a couple other employees who expressed frustration and concern about the extreme waste and the detrimental effects on our planet. I learned that they had already attempted to instigate a recycling program; they did the research and brought it to the building management. Even though instigating such a program would be free and cost the building management nothing-- they declined the request. For a while, the two of them work on their own, collecting the days recycling and transporting it in their own vehicles to a recycling center, but due to the sheer volume of paper and other recyclables generated by this office, they were forced to abandon their efforts—it had become too much. I took up the cause, delving into the government internet websites for Arizona and the City of Tempe. I found out that, yes, it would be free for the building management to add a recycling program “If you receive City of Tempe trash service there is no charge for the weekly recycling collection service. For a limited time we will provide recycling containers at no charge.” (http://www.tempe.gov/index.aspx?page=1009) I tried to look in to laws and regulations about commercial and business recycling. The only laws I found pertain to what can and what cannot be recycled. I would like to propose a petition that would make it mandatory for the property owners and/or management of all corporate offices and commercial enterprises to make a recycling program available to their tenants or employees upon request.