Cutting Office Waste (And Carbon Footprints)
One Pen at a Time​
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Did you know the average office employee churns out two pounds of waste every single day?
That’s two pounds of paper, plastic, and probably half a sandwich left abandoned in the breakroom.
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Oh, but wait—there’s more!
The average carbon footprint for an office worker? Around 3.5 kg of CO2 per day.
Multiply that by five days a week, 52 weeks a year, and... well, you get the picture. Offices are carbon factories disguised as places of productivity.
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So, what if there were a simple way to cut down on both waste and carbon emissions?
Well, that’s where Switch Everything comes in. Imagine your office using sustainable, refillable office supplies that also plant a tree with every purchase.
And not just any tree: we’re talking about the superhero of trees—a mangrove.
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This humble coastal tree is a carbon-sucking, oxygen-pumping, coastline-defending, biodiversity-loving champion—that absorbs around 308 kg (661 lbs) of CO2 over its 25-year lifespan.
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Cutting Carbon & Waste: A Hypothesis for a 100-Employee Office​
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Let’s break it down:
The average office worker produces 3.5 kg of CO2 each day, contributing to a carbon footprint of 350 kg CO2 per day for an office of 100 employees.
Over a year (assuming 250 working days), that adds up to a staggering 87.5 tonnes of CO2—and that's just from day-to-day office activities, not including things like transportation or heating and cooling the office space.
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As for waste?
The typical office worker generates about 2 pounds of office waste per day, which includes paper, plastic, and disposable cups. That’s 200 pounds of waste per day for an office of 100, or an eye-watering 50,000 pounds of waste in a year.
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​​How Switch Everything Could Make a Difference:
If this hypothetical office of 100 employees switched to Switch Everything’s sustainable products, here’s an educated guess of the improvements:
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Refillable Pens and Markers:
By replacing single-use plastic pens and markers with our refillable and recyclable aluminum options, we could eliminate a significant amount of plastic waste that would otherwise end up in landfills.
Tree-Free Paper:
Switching from traditional paper to our sugarcane waste-based paper would save trees and reduce the carbon footprint of paper production.
Compostable Trash Bags:
Our compostable trash bags would prevent traditional plastic bags from contributing to landfill waste and microplastic pollution.
Bamboo Cups:
Replacing disposable cups with reusable bamboo cups would save thousands of cups from being discarded each year.
Plastic-Free Tape:
Using plastic-free tape would minimize microplastic pollution and reduce single-use plastic waste.
Hypothesis of Waste & Carbon Reduction:
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If each employee uses just 50 pens per year (a typical number), that’s 5,000 pens going to waste annually. Switching to refillable pens could prevent all of this plastic waste and reduce the associated carbon emissions from manufacturing and disposal.
By switching to tree-free paper, an office could save approximately 4,000 pounds of CO2 per tonne of paper used annually.
Overall, we estimate this office could reduce its annual CO2 footprint by 10-15%,
while cutting plastic and paper waste by a significant margin—potentially reducing office waste by 40-50% if all products were switched.
The impact wouldn’t just be felt in carbon and waste reductions—it would also reflect a corporate culture shift toward sustainability, making the office greener and more conscious of its footprint.