How to be a plastic neutral workplace

Since the early 1950s, researchers estimate that more than 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic have been produced, and 60% of that waste has ended up in either landfills or the environment.

As a national distributor, we understand that pinpointing the specific areas of plastic waste creation is essential to initiating environmental change within your business.

We think there are 4 things that every company needs to think about before becoming an environmentally aware business:

• Build habits that last
• Reward conscious living
• Stay ahead of the curve
• Keep employees in the know

So, using that, here are our 4 tips you can start with to kick start your office to becoming a plastic neutral workplace. Using the 4 R’s (Refuse, Reduce, Recycle, Reuse), this is a great way to encourage change throughout your business.

Ban the plastic bottles

Just do it. Will it be a big change? Absolutely, but once your staff understand the benefits of using their own water bottles, it will soon become part of your everyday culture. Not only does having refill stations instead promote more water drinking, it saves money due to the 300% mark up placed on plastic water bottles.

Branded water bottles not only make the perfect gift, but are also the perfect opportunity to show your staff that you are committed to them and the planet. Personalised logo branded water bottles all round please!

Be smart with your office essentials

It’s going to be almost impossible to completely eliminate plastic from the office as some supplies are plastic, but a good place to start would be to consider using recyclable or eco-friendly products around the office. As the world becomes more eco-conscious, biodegradable and recyclable products are paving the way forward for an environmentally conscious business. Refillable containers are also becoming more common, as purchasing refill packs for cleaning products can save you time and money across your indirect expenditure.

Green Deliveries

Do you have multiple users buying from multiple suppliers? It may be time to consider consolidating your workplace supplies into one supplier. Having one supplier means fewer deliveries, whilst also saving you money in the long term. This can make a huge difference to your environmental impact from deliveries whilst also being a lot more efficient for your business.

Additionally, make sure to keep track of what your team regularly go through to ensure you don’t risk over-ordering and end up with cupboards full of unused plastic pens!

Create an office challenge

Here is a new challenge for you: the department who fills up their recycling bin first by the end of the week wins a free lunch.

There are tonnes of ways you can encourage healthy and engaging competition that will result in building a plastic neutral office in a fun and friendly way. If just 10% of the country’s 29 million businesses were to replace single-use plastic products with reusable or waste-neutral products, we’d see an immediate reduction in annual plastic waste output.

You can read more about our commitments here