7 ways to reduce plastic waste

7 ways to reduce plastic waste

A recent study by GlobalWebIndex has found that in the last 12 months, 53% of UK consumers have consciously reduced the amount of single-use plastic they use. This reduction will certainly help to combat the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills and our oceans.

As a business or an organisation, you may also want to do your ‘bit’ in reducing the amount of plastic waste you produce. If so, here are some simple things you can do to help your employees, students, volunteers and customers to cut back on the amount of plastic they use:

  1. Encourage people to bring in their own lunches – most shop-bought lunches like sandwiches, pastas and ready-made dishes come in plastic containers. Some of which aren’t recyclable. By providing storage and cooking facilities, people will be more willing to prepare their own lunches instead of purchasing them ready made
  2. Offer distilled water – the ‘Plastic bottles: Turning back the plastic tide’ report which was commissioned by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee found that 13 billion single use water bottles are sold each year. Shockingly, only over half of these are recycled. Encourage people to drink more water and save money while cutting back on single-use plastic water bottles by providing fresh water from a water cooler
  3. Ban plastic cups – cut back on the amount of plastic your business or institution produces by supplying each person with a mug, cup or water bottle
  4. Make recycling easy – while this is not solely related to plastic, having a simple and clear recycling policy will make it easier for people to recycle any plastic waste that is produced. Have this policy on display and provide a copy to all new starters so they are aware of it from day one
  5. Swap your teabags – unbelievably some teabags contain plastic. As a nation, we drink around 60 billion cups of tea a year. That’s a lot of plastic! Non-plastic alternatives are available including loose tea and sachets
  6. Bin the vending machine – this is an easy way to reduce sugary sweets in the office while cutting back on plastic. As an alternative provide staff with a selection of healthy snacks like fruit or vegetables or paper wrapped snacks like popcorn, protein or muesli bars
  7. Work with suppliers who are focused on sustainability – the packaging that comes into your business or institution from outside sources can have a big impact on the environment. Ask your suppliers if they can offer plastic-free alternatives. If they can’t consider switching to ones who can

Here at Hague, we’re focused on ensuring any impact we have on the environment is minimal. To do this, we choose to use materials which are accredited by the FSC – Forest Stewardship Council, any waste we do produce is recycled at a local plant and all our products are supplied in recycled packaging.

To discuss how we can help you to reduce your plastic usage, complete our online enquiry form and an experienced member of our print team will be in touch shortly.