Business, Reduce, Refill & Reuse Posted — 8 November 2023
Going beyond the single-use plastics bans
To make greater strides towards a circular economy, we must go beyond the current single-use bans and its many exemptions. Our business champions talk to us about how they have used small steps to make big changes, and give their advice for businesses starting their own plastic free journey…
Amy Church, Manager partner of Lucas and Wyllys Solicitors in Norfolk, have now gained their Plastic Free Champion Silver Award, and talked to us about how they started their plastic reduction journey..
For us, it was small steps, we started our journey focusing on recycling and reducing waste, which naturally progressed to reducing single-use plastics. They are many replacements available online, we found refillable and plastic free alternatives for our office easy to find. Our staff have been positive and embraced the changes too.
Amy Church, Lucas & Wyllys
Amy found that despite switching to new products, their costs have remained fairly static, and have found refillable cleaning products in particular to be cost effective.
Even if you can only make a couple of swaps, it makes a difference. Give it a go and you will soon find yourself swapping out many plastic products.
Another Business Champion, Sunnyside Guest House in Southport, first started making the switch to plastic free during covid, and aimed to replace every single-use plastic item with a reusable product. Their first change was to get rid of single-use plastic water bottles, and switch to reusable glass bottles.
Another switch was moving to locally grown produce, which increased the quality and freshness of the food provided. They even decided to make jams onsite, which meant no more single-use plastic jam pots. Using milk from a local diary and providing milk in glass bottles, meant they could stop using plastic milk sachets.
Using reusable items has certainly reduced our spending, and lots of these small changes together have made a big impact on our costs overall. It has also made us more resilient. We have made the changes at our own pace which has future-proofed our business. We don’t have to worry about future plastic bans or taxes. It’s also not always necessary to make a huge commitment to start off, even small changes can get the ball rolling.
Anthony Duffey
Anthony found that the Business Champion Award was an opportunity to get the message across to prospective customers about their hard work and achievements, and presented an opportunity to shout about their achievements on social media and in the press.
A circular economy is easier to reach for in smaller steps, and the impact many independent businesses can have altogether in the UK is massive.
For example, Newbury and Thatcham, have 45 businesses with the Plastic Free Business Champion award in their area. They are removing 100,000 items a year between them. Many of these businesses were already compliant with the plastic ban, setting them ahead of other businesses. Thatcham Refillable, who have recently been attributed the plastic free champion gold award and removed the top 10 plastic offenders prior to the plastic ban coming into place.
Our Plastic Free Champions are essential to moving to a circular economy. By reducing, reusing and refilling our Champions ensure we are reducing landfill and our carbon footprint one step at a time.
Nikki Coome, Plastic Free Community Lead for Newbury and Thatcham.
Join the movement today, and be a business leader in the plastic free movement in the UK…
Find your local Plastic Free Community here
Get an Individual Action Plan here
Find out more about the Plastic Free Champion Award here
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