Waste
WSC has taken many steps to reduce, reuse, and recycle at the corporate office to minimize our waste footprint. Additionally, to encourage our employees to be part of our successful sustainability goals, we have several different waste collection and recycling bins located throughout our office. With these different forms of interactions, our aim is to help employees to think beyond the bin.
Reduce
Reducing the use of disposable plastic water bottles has been approached in different ways at the corporate office.
- Employees are encouraged to use reusable water bottles at water bottle filling stations.
- No disposable plastic water bottles are available for purchase in our micro mart.
- Boxed water is offered during large meetings and events.
There is one Bevi water dispenser and three water bottle filling stations located throughout our office. In 2023, a total of 39,705* disposable plastic bottles were saved.
*Based on 20 fl oz/bottle **Based on a 12 fl oz/bottle
To reduce our footprint, the office continues to utilize compostable coffee pods contributing to our compost program to reduce paper and plastic waste. Kauai Coffee is our coffee supplier for the pod machines. Kauai Coffee, located in Hawaii, is the United States’ largest coffee grower and are dedicated to social and environmental sustainability.
The café area also has a large whole bean grinding coffee machine. WSC selected a local coffee supplier, Blk & Bold, the first Black-owned nationally distributed coffee brand that also achieved B Corp status. BLK & Bold pledge 5% of its profits to initiatives aligned to sustaining youth programming, enhancing workforce development, and eradicating youth homelessness.
Reuse
In pursuit of our reduction of plastic and paper waste initiatives, the office has reusable silverware, plates and bowls in the café and pantries. When possible, during catered meetings and events, compostable cups, plates, and silverware are used.
WSC has also provided branded reusable cups and mugs to corporate offices employees over the years to reduce the amount of plastic waste from water bottles or coffee cups. New hires are given a reusable cup on day one as part of the onboarding/orientation initiative.
212 Devices Were Redeployed by the IT Department
ELECTRONICS
The IT department purchases and redeploys electronic devices that are in good working order to reduce the amount of electronic waste they produce over each device’s lifetime while also savings on device costs. 212 devices were redeployed in 2023.
COMPOSTING
At the headquarters, a 3-stream waste collection system is utilized to encourage employees to sort their waste into either landfill, recycle, or compost. These everyday decisions cause employees to think beyond the bin, reclaiming value from waste to reduce their individual footprints together with the company, a joint effort for WSC to be successful in our sustainability goals.
A local Iowa company, GreenRU, repurposes our organic waste to create nutrient rich soil compost materials and keep a portion of our waste out of the landfill reducing our environmental footprint. Our Training and Development department created a brief interactive game called Stop. Think. Sort. to optionally play on WSCU after watching an educational workshop led by GreenRU to inform employees about the company and our compost program.
Recycle
E-waste is a growing global concern. WSC has partnered with PCs for People and CC3 for our company’s e-recycling as well as hosting an employee personal e-recycling day. In 2023, WSC worked with PCs for People to e-recycle 4,584 pounds of company e-waste from our corporate office with an additional 799 from our employee e-recycle day. With our e-recycling partnerships in 2023, we were able to keep a combined total of 5,383 pounds of e-waste out of the landfill. Since 2018, WSC has diverted 11,619 pounds of e-waste from the landfill.
We continue to recycle batteries and office supplies through TerraCycle. Employees can drop off these items in one of the two recycling bins located in each side of the building.
TerraCycle Recycling Highlights
48
POUNDS OF
OFFICE SUPPLY
73
POUNDS OF
BATTERIES
5,383
POUNDS
OF ELECTRONICS
Through our secure shredding partnership with The Shredder, we have printed materials securely shredded and then recycled. Several locked bins are located through the office for employees to dispose of sensitive printed materials. This information is not captured in our waste assessment.
