Eco-Friendly Businesses

Making Your Business Plastic-free

Most of us spend a lot of time at the office and so it’s no surprise that businesses produce a lot of plastic waste. But there are several steps that both the employees and management of any business can take to reduce the use of plastic and minimize the plastic footprint of your business.

Easy steps you can take:

Start using recycled pencils, wooden highlighters, eco-paper packing tape, sustainable wood desk tidies and in-trays. Provide centralised recycling points and encourage the use of reusable cups over disposable, single-use plastic cups. The best way to do this is to provide your staff with branded mugs and refillable water bottles.

For the pantry, use reusable shopping bags for buying any supplies and arrange for milk delivery in returnable glass bottles. Set up a composting system for leftovers. Discourage the use of tea bags and use loose tea. Provide a washing up area and washable cutlery and plates for lunch.

Place information on sustainable habits in the bathrooms. Ensure sanitary bins are in all cubicles and use refillable containers for hand wash and any cleaning products.

plastic free products
plastic free products

Changes in company policy:

Carry out a waste audit and find out how much waste your business is creating. Identify the areas for improvement and see what next steps you can take. 

Encourage and incentivize the recycling and reuse of packaging throughout the supply chain. Involving both internal and external stakeholders, create integrated and practical plans to reduce your plastic footprint. 

Find innovative ways to involve your employees and communicate to them the impact of the changes made. 

Conduct workshops for employees so that they understand the importance of the refuse/reduce/reuse/repurpose/recycle and get them aligned with your goals. 

Last but not the least, publish your environmental social responsibility declaration on your website, detailing your approach to dealing with waste.