Convert your mess into a green office kitchen

Concept of clean, green kitchen is as much applicable to office as home. We should remain committed to recycling, minimizing waste, buying organic and other activities that contribute to good health and a clean environment.

Let’s begin with that stacks of Styrofoam (foam) cups, plates and bowls in the office kitchen. Styrofoam, generically known as polystyrene, is bad news for the environment and for your health. Besides being extremely non-biodegradable, styrene migrates into the liquid and gets into your body as you sip your beverage. Hot, fatty, acidic, or alcoholic beverages increase the rate of styrene migration. This is true about the polystyrene cups which come with "No CFCs," tag.

For drinking water, charcoal filters are a good alternative to bottled water. But they should be cleaned regularly.

Fair trade organic coffee and organic milk in staff kitchens add eco-sensitive taste to your beverages.

So, what is the solution? Here are a few suggestions:

• Employees - Get your own mug! (Now this is an easy one! For the boss, of course.)


• Gift each employee their zodiac cup – may be with a caption suiting their personality.


• Use paper plates and bowls instead. In countries like India you even get plates and bowls made of dried leaves.


• Look for "tree-free" plates and bowls. These are made from sugar refining waste product.


• Get special crockery done for your office – with your company logo – account for the cost in brand building budget.


• And if you have to use cups, plates and bowls, use biodegradable and /or recyclable options.


• If you are a trend setter, source out biodegradable wheat or corn. Not available readily, but they do exist.

Next, wash your conscience clean of coffee from a chopped-down section of rainforest, heavily treated with pesticides and hot chocolate that may be the result of the cocoa plantations using forced child labor and those soda-based beverages that cause osteoporosis, obesity, tooth decay and heart disease.

We don’t ask you do way with your cup of tea/coffee or compromise on the taste. But we do recommend healthier, environmentally friendly options such as:

• Go organic, it’s pesticide free.


• Go farmer-friendly. Buy fair trade, so farmers get a fair price


• Protect the rainforest. Look for shade-grown (under original rainforest canopy) labels.


• Bid sodas goodbye.*

*So called natural and organic sodas may be healthier options to the mainstream sodas if consumed in moderation, but even these full of sugar or other concentrated sweeteners.

Switch to environmentally friendly napkins and paper towels to help make sure your office is not contributing to the problem. If you use paper towels, napkins, and other ultra-disposable paper products, you may be contributing to cutting down trees from virgin tracts of forest or old-growth forests.

And if you want our support in convincing your office people, feel free to forward this article to them. And if it is your boss who disagrees, tell him/her that switching to reusable products will save him/her money.