In case you missed it, last week some of our staff pledged to reduce their single-use plastic use for a week as part of Plastic Free July. The idea around Plastic Free July was to increase awareness around single-use plastic consumption. Below are a couple of great examples of where some of our staff had to come up with innovative solutions to their reduce their daily single-use plastic routines.

The first plastic issue we faced in the office came up on our morning office cup of tea run. Since most teabags contain plastic, some of us gave up tea for the week, however later in the week we discovered there are some plastic-free tea bag alternatives out there. Buying shampoo was another issue due to the plastic bottle most of them come in, however with shampoo bars being readily available in most shops this proved an easy transition.

When doing our shop, many of us opted not to take non-recyclable bags when buying goods, instead taking rucksacks or bags for life. When buying food for pets, Claire from our Creative team decided not to buy the usual bagged salad for her tortoise, Professor Truffles. In doing this she discovered Professor Truffles enjoys dandelion and clover which isn’t just plastic-free, it’s also cost-effective.

In terms of daily grooming, some of us decided to ditch disposable razors and invest in stainless-steel razors with separately sold blades. Not only was this disposable but it also proved to be a cheaper alternative.

We had vegetable boxes delivered alongside our weekly boxes of fruit to the office with everyone making great use of the unpackaged fruit and veg in the office. Lunch times needed a certain creative spark as a lot of the time everything would need to be made in advance. Kate from our Environmental team made bread at home and froze individual slices to keep it fresh. As well as this she had a go at picking her own rhubarb and making jam.

On-the-whole, our staff found the week trickier than they had initially expected, however they were delighted to find out how readily available plastic-free solutions were to find. In some cases, we were finding we weren’t only reducing our single-use plastic consumption, we were also saving money.

We very much enjoyed participating in Plastic Free July and we’re happy to say some of our plastic free habits of the last week won’t be short-lived.