Plastic pollution (and the impact it’s having on the planet) has featured heavily in the media in recent years. In 2016, National Geographic reported that 8m metric tonnes of plastic waste ends up in our oceans annually – the equivalent of a full bag of rubbish ‘for every foot of coastline in the world.’ We’ve all seen the evidence circulating online; sadly, photos of marine life tangled in discarded plastic and videos of coastlines brimming with waste won’t be unfamiliar features in many of our social media feeds.

It’s World Environment Day on 5th June. Although there’s no overnight solution to the problem, we can all play a role in helping to prevent further damage to our environment – including reducing plastic waste in our workplaces. If you want to raise awareness on this issue in your office and begin to make some all-important changes, we’ve listed eight ideas and resources below to help you and your colleagues get started:

Bring people together

It’s unlikely that you’ll be the only person in your office who’s passionate about making positive changes to reducing the effects of plastic pollution. Send an email to your colleagues to find out who’s interested in creating a greener office,and gather a team of like-minded people to get things moving.

Get to grips with your recycling scheme

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is a registered charity working with governments, businesses and communities, which aims to ‘accelerate the move to a sustainable, resource-efficient economy.’ They provide a waste audit guide for businesses, full of facts on what can and can’t be recycled – along with advice on how to set up an effective recycling scheme in your workplace.

If you’ve already got a recycling scheme in place, take a closer look at it to make sure your office is recycling as efficiently as possible – and raise any issues or areas for improvement with your Company.

Ditch single-use bottled water

The NRDC estimates that nearly 20 billion plastic bottles are thrown away every year – yikes! If your employees tend to buy single use bottled water during your working hours, or you supply these in meetings for client visitors, try encouraging the carrying of a reusable water bottle or opting to use glasses from your office kitchen instead. You could also consider water filters or filter taps for your workplace, to replace any bottled water.

Bring a bag

Do you/your colleagues regularly pop out of the office to pick up lunch, or something for after-work  dinner? If so, consider encouraging staff to keep a reusable bag in their desk drawer. Carrier bags can take between 10 and 20 years to decompose in the sea, and National Geographic once reported that a plastic bag was found at the bottom of the world’s deepest ocean trench.  Better still why not give every employee a personalised and/or branded fabric tote bag as a valuable piece of office swag.

Avoid disposable cups and cutlery

If your office provides both disposable and non-disposable coffee cups or cutlery, avoid using the plastic that’s on offer. Better still, approach your leaders to find out if the disposable cutlery is really necessary – could they cut it out altogether? If your office doesn’t provide reusable items, consider bringing your own in from home.

Spread the word

If you decide to carry out a plastic audit in your workplace, make sure you share the results with everyone. You’ll need to be sure mutual understanding of what needs to be done to bring about positive change – and your enthusiasm could encourage your colleagues to embrace a new way of doing things. You could also spread the word via social media, to let your customers, clients and associates know about the fantastic changes you’ve got planned.

Get stuck in

The World Environment Day’s Guide for Organisations invites companies to take a hands-on approach when celebrating the event. They suggest finding an area near to your workplace in need of a clean-up – a stretch of coastline, a river or community space, for example – and gathering a team to get rid of any litter. You could organise a similar event with your team, to encourage your colleagues to make your local environment better for everyone – whilst also raising awareness on the issue of plastic pollution.

How will your workplace celebrate World Environment Day? Does your workplace already take measures to reduce waste? We’d love to hear your plans – contact us on hello@HROptimisation.co.uk

 

 

 

 

Hannah Powell