There are lots of ways that your business can help to reduce the amount of waste that it generates. Office recycling and becoming more electronically based are just a few of the steps that you can take to minimize waste. Here are some of the other steps that you can take to ensure that your packaging is recycled. 

Encourage Customer Returns 
Some states have deposits placed on certain items in order to encourage recycling. This includes things like soda containers and paint cans. The customer will have their deposit returned if they take the item to an approved recycling facility. You may want to implement a similar system in which customers can ship back their old packaging to you. This would cut down on the amount of packaging that you'd have to make, and would reduce your waste. 

Consider Your Packing Fill 
Many businesses will use packing peanuts or air filled plastic bags in order to protect their products during shipment. The large majority of this fill is discarded directly into the trash. Look into other ways that you can protect your products in transit that aren't as harmful to the environment. For example, shredding important papers may be one solution to look into because these items can easily be recycled by your consumers. 

Look for Alternatives 
Another alternative is to outsource your packaging needs to a packaging service so that you don't have to come up with your own ideas on how to reduce waste at your business. This type of business is used to dealing with these concerns and can do so more efficiently. In the gaming industry, computer games used to be sold in the form of a disc and the packaging material. The industry has switched over to downloading things directly to their consumers' systems. You may be able to implement a similar solution. 

Invest in Biodegradable Solutions 
You may remember the packing peanuts that dissolved in water that were popular for a while. They were made out of rice flour and provided the same level of protection for your products, but reduced the amount of waste that was discarded. Coming up with ideas like this helps to reduce waste globally. Another solution is to use only recycled products in your packaging so that you can eliminate the creation of new products for at least one cycle. 

Minimizing the amount of waste that's generated is a global effort. Seek out other ideas from other businesses so that you can all work together.