How to reduce your companies Plastic use:
It’s estimated that the UK uses 500 million tonnes of plastic every year with the business community being responsible for a large proportion of this figure.
New legislation introduced in April this year around plastic packaging tax is driving a reduction in this number and affected businesses are making the changes necessary.
‘Plastic free July’ is in the environmental calendar to encourage us all to take the challenge and consciously examine our plastic usage to seek alternatives and break habits.
What more can businesses do?
Reduce at source & review your purchasing
- It sounds simple, but the best way to reduce your plastic pollution is to simply not use plastics in the first place. Many single use plastics such as cutlery, cups, water bottles etc can be replaced with washable reusable alternatives if there are facilities to do this, or they can be swapped for paper or wooden recyclable alternatives very easily.
- Don’t forget to review all of your promotional items too, many of these are made of plastic and there are great alternatives including bamboo reusable coffee cups, bamboo pens, organic or recycled fabric tote bags and recycled paper notebooks as an example. Your choice of materials, conveys a strong message that you are environmentally aware whilst also promoting your brand. Why not consider gifting a branded reusable water bottle to all your staff?
- Speak to your suppliers, most will have cost effective more eco-friendly options and if they don’t it will encourage them to address the issue!
Encourage your staff to behave sustainably
- Implement an Environmental management system ISO 14001 to build a culture of environmental awareness and sustainability at the heart of your business.
- Measure your carbon footprint and commit to a carbon neutrality plan which will benchmark your business as one that both understands these requirements and one that achieves continual environmental improvement.
- Join and support social awareness campaigns like ‘Plastic free July’. Environmental awareness training for all staff and good sign-posting around recycling and waste will drive the changes in habit and give staff a sense of pride in their organisation for making a difference. (According to a survey of 2,000 adults within the United Kingdom, 92 percent said they were concerned about plastic pollution)
We’ve created free downloadable environmental sustainability posters here and if you want to promote ‘Plastic free July’ you can find free resources via this link: https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/resources/posters/
To find out more about ISO 14001 Environmental management systems or Carbon neutrality planning, please contact us at info@functio.co.uk or 01903 740609
