Plastic-Pollution-Solution-Tool-Kit-Guide

12 By making small changes to your day-to-day you can be part of a global effort that is making a real difference. Take the Challenge Take our challenge and see how you go. WEEK 1 BRAINSTORM  Get your team together for a productive brainstorming session and to workshop some ideas. Try throwing a plastic-free morning tea to raise awareness and to start the conversation. Be sure to include representatives from each part of your business to ensure a well-rounded view. Keep it positive, focus on the solutions, and not the problems. The goal of this session is to encourage the sharing of practical ideas your business can reduce the use of plastic, both in your everyday business practices, and as individuals. Start with the “easy-wins” such as bringing reusable coffee cups into work and work up to bigger ideas like reducing plastic in production and packaging. WEEK 2 KITCHENS & BREAK ROOMS  Choose to refuse single-use plastics in your workplace’s kitchen. The kitchen and breakroom are great places to start when looking for plastic reducing solutions. First, take an inventory of all the single-use plastic that is in your kitchen or break room, you may be surprised by how much you find. Look out for plastic cutlery, plastic plates, bowls and cups, bin bags, biscuit packets, teabags, and water bottles. Once you’ve worked up a list of the plastics lurking in your kitchen start thinking of sustainable, reusable alternatives that you can replace them with, such as ceramic mugs, stainless steel cutlery and glass cups. WEEK 3 WORKPLACE PROCUREMENT  Take a look at your workplace’s procurement practices, it might surprise you to discover just how much single-use plastic your company uses, but the good news is that it’s an easy fix! Whatever your workplaces procurement procedure is, gather together key procurement people in a meeting. Try and ensure someone with decision making authority is on the team, or at least aware of the initiative. Together you can explore amending the procurement procedure by asking questions like: • Do we really need to procure this single-use plastic item? • Can it be procured without single-use plastic packaging? • Can the same item be made from recycled content, thus closing the loop? • Can packaging be reduced by buying in bulk? • Are our suppliers making a conscious effort to reduce plastics in their own business and in the products they sell? For every bin-full of waste generated, 70 bin-fulls was generated upstream in making it. This is why it’s so important to reduce waste through good procurement practices.