Excellent post. There is so much waste in the average workplace, anything you can divert from the landfill is a benefit to all. Wasted food and paper accounts for a lot of it. Don't forget file boxes: my office gets paper in these excellent heavy cardboard boxes just the right size for files Keep in mind that just because something is headed for recycling doesn't mean it's ready to be retired so easily. People in my office throw returnable bottles and cans straight into the recycling bin because it seems like "too much trouble" to take them back to the store. I asked myself if I am really so cheap as to fish out 5 cent bottles, and it turned out, I am! After a while people started leaving them to the side for me--I take them home and return to the deposit station every month or so. (I felt embarrassed enough by this one to turn the profits into the coffee fund, but that's anyone's choice.) A reused bottle requires a lot less energy than one that is smashed, washed, and melted down to be made over again.

Oh yeah--I never buy a newspaper or trade magazines. My office subscribes to a local paper, a national paper, and several journals. I read them on coffee breaks. (And again, the savings to me is a savings to the landfill--one less paper for the trash.)