Alongside reducing carbon emissions, our Business Climate Action Group is also promoting best practices for businesses to improve their overall sustainability.
Here are some actions to reduce your avoidable plastic resources and waste, which will create cost savings and protect our environment.
Sophie Goodall-Smith from the Environment Agency’s plastics and sustainability team offers these top five tips for businesses:
Undertake an audit of your plastic resources (inputs) and waste (outputs) – use this waste audit tool.- Follow the waste hierarchy (pictured right).
- Identify three avoidable plastics to eliminate. For example, product packaging, single-use catering items and marketing materials.
- Register your interest to make a plastic reduction commitment and gain advice and support from local charity the Final Straw Foundation.
- Work with your customers and supply chain to implement and communicate your positive changes – watch this supply chain webinar for ideas.
The Interreg Preventing Plastic Pollution project seeks to understand and reduce the impacts of plastic pollution in the marine environment, working in partnership with 18 organisations across France and England. By looking at the catchment from source to sea, the project identifies and targets hotspots for plastic, embeds behaviour change in local communities and businesses, and implements effective solutions and alternatives. The project partners have produced some useful free resources.
The Final Straw Foundation is a charity registered in England (no. 1191500) that works with businesses, communities and schools to tackle and raise awareness of plastic pollution in our oceans and environment. Fill out the form to get more information about how to reduce the volume of disposable plastic items that you use in your business, and get ideas from others in the sector that have already made changes, email: hello@finalstrawfoundation.org.
