Eco friendly office

Seeing as it’s where you spend 40-odd hours of your week, your office is one of the main places you can make conscious swaps to reduce your plastic consumption. Here is our guide for managers and employees to make your workplace ocean-friendly…

1. Don’t use bottled water: Water cooler chat IS just a phrase, the water cooler itself is a non-essential factor. You can still have a conversation next to a sink or water fountain…

2. Get rid of single use plastic packaging: There is an alternative to pretty much every type of plastic packaging you can think of. Some examples include mushroom based styrofoam, cardboard or bio-poly mailing bags, cornstarch packing peanuts or shredded paper and card.

3. Have enough recycling bins and clearly label them, plus make sure you’re fully aware of the collection days and times to avoid buildup.

4. Make sure there are kitchen facilities on offer: Even if your office is a small one, dedicating an area to a microwave, mini-fridge and a kettle will prevent staff having to go out and buy food/drinks that come in plastic containers or plastic lined coffee cups.

5. Buy in bulk: Rather than having single serve milk pots or sugar sachets, buy bigger containers and decant them into glass jars. You should be able to trust adults not to lick the spoon and put it back in…right?

6. Use Refillables for the kitchen and bathroom: Stores such as Splosh offer refills pouches for products like kitchen cleaner, antibacterial cleanser and hand soaps, with one pouch refilling a bottle up to 6 times! This will save a whole load of empty plastic bottles from going to waste.

Get a Terracycle box: Terracycle’s motto is ‘recycle the unrecyclable’ and they offer collection boxes for all kinds of office supplies that would usually go straight in the bin, such as pens, lanyards and CDs.

And here’s a bonus one everyone who’s office is now within their home…

8. Don’t buy new gear to kit out your home office: When it comes to furniture, storage, stationery or electronics – see what you can get from friends and family, Facebook Marketplace, eBay or second hand stores. It’s not just the product itself that you have to think about, but the packaging it arrives in, and all the materials that have been used in its production.

Why do we need to reduce plastic?

and of course…bring in your reusable bottle rather than purchasing in plastic!