Importance of eco-friendly promotional products

Plastics – are you doing the right thing?

Businesses need to do something about reducing the amount of plastic they use – that much is clear. They can’t ignore the situation any longer, and indeed, many industries are drawing up plans to phase out single-use plastics and work on more effective recycling. It’s not surprising: humans have produced around 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic since the 1950s, and more in the last decade than during the whole of the 20^th century. But with governments bringing in legislation, the economic rationale for inaction is declining, and the hope is this new reality could spark innovation and opportunity. Already, many large and small firms are making changes. Drinks giant Coca-Cola has pledged to increase the amount of recycled content in plastic bottles to 50 per cent by 2030, McDonald’s will make all its packaging from recyclable sources by 2025 and Danone’s Evian will make all its plastic bottles from recycled plastic by 2025. But what can your business do to become more environmentally sustainable? And what can you do to promote reducing plastics to your customers? Here’s EverythingBranded’s guide to the changes you could, and should, be making to bring about positive change.  

Eco-friendly quick wins

• Remove all rubbish bins from desk areas and provide centralised recycling points.
• Use recycled pencils, wooden highlighters, eco-paper packing tape, sustainable wood desk tidies and in-trays.
• Provide staff with their own branded reusable cup and drinking bottle.
• If you have coffee machines, use reusable cups or mugs.
• Provide drinking water stations. Use glasses and not disposable cups, and encourage employees to use a drinking water bottle.
• Set up a composting system for uncooked food leftovers.
• Ensure sanitary bins are in all cubicles, male and female.

Eco-friendly longer-term wins

Company policies

• Carry out a waste audit to find out how much waste you are producing. This will help highlight areas for improvement and provide baseline information to measure change against.
• Encourage minimal packaging and maximise reuse of necessary packaging throughout the supply chain. Ensure you adopt this policy throughout your business.
• Engage with key internal and external stakeholders on issues central to your business to ensure your plans are integrated, practical, yet ambitious. Find innovative ways to engage employees and report back to them on the impact of any changes. Focus on key issues people can have a positive impact on.
• Publish your environmental social responsibility statement online, including a section which details your approach to dealing with waste (e.g. having a zero waste to landfill policy), alongside annually updated KPIs and targets (e.g. a policy to increase to 100 per cent recycled and recyclable materials in marketing materials and displays by a set date).