- Date: 25 July 2024
- Category: Small Business Guidance
Plastic free July is here. You don’t have to be an environmentalist to understand that the tide is turning on single use plastics. In 2015, the UK government banned single use plastic bags. Since that time, there have been 9 billion less plastic bags in circulation, creating a meaningful change on a product that lasts for over 20 years, often being used for a matter of minutes.
That’s just one example of a change in habits that has taken hold over the last decade or so. But there’s still a long way to go. Plastic waste is still a huge part of the problem, especially when plastic is dumped into our oceans. But what are some of the facts about plastic pollution, and how does waste impact the environment in general? Let’s explore.
The Most Polluting Industries in the World
Energy
This may not be a surprise, but energy is the most polluting industry on the planet. How we get our energy has become a more pressing topic over the last few years, as governments and companies battle with their reliance on fossil fuels. How we move forward with alternate energy production will be a key factor in reducing greenhouse gasses.
Transport
Transport is massively linked to energy consumption, because whether it’s gas, electricity or petrol/diesel, transport needs powering. But while electric cars are becoming more popular, there still needs to be more done to tackle how we fuel other transport such as planes and cruise ships etc.
Manufacturing
This is where plastics and other things come into it. All of the manufacturing industries rely on energy, but it isn’t just how it produces things, but what it produces. Manufacturing plants produce many of our everyday consumables, and that includes plastics. Packaging for these items is one of the big issues facing the planet. To put that into context, in 2021, there was a massive 2.5 million metric tons of plastic packaging generated in the UK. The reduction of plastic packaging to cardboard will no doubt come over the next decade, as countries look to meet their 2030 deadlines.
Food Retail
This is another one of the main players in the market when it comes to plastic use. If you think about just how much food packaging comes in plastic containers – from soup cartons to fruit packaging – and then imagine how much of that is left unrecycled. For context, the UK has a current recycling rate of 44.2%. More than half of waste can’t, or isn’t, being recycled.
How the UK Waste Numbers Stack Up
This plastic free July, here are some of the key facts on the UK’s waste disposal:
UK households’ recycling rate was up 0.2% in 2021, to 44.6%, compared to 44.4% in 2020.
63.2% OF UK packaging waste was recycled in 2021.
Commercial entities in England (entire UK figures are unavailable) generated 33.9 million tonnes of waste in 2021.
Waste generated in the UK in total in 2018 was 222.2 million tonnes.
*Taken from the UK government’s statistics on waste
How Small Changes can Help Reduce Commercial Waste
There are small changes that you can make to ensure that you’re not overly using plastic in your day to day operation. Simple changes like buying larger, commercial sized cleaning products that can then be decanted into a smaller reusable bottle. But there’s other, easy things you can do to encourage staff to join in too.
Firstly, encouraging staff to bring in homemade lunches in plastic containers avoids rebuying packaging and throwing it away each day.
A lot of workplaces offer drinks, sometimes in plastic bottles. If you have a drinks fridge or a vending machine, offering more recyclable packaging solutions or even larger bottles of drink that people can dilute or refill. This would vastly reduce the waste for drinks cartons and containers.
How Direct365 Can Help
Direct365 are passionate about helping small businesses achieve their eco-friendly goals. That’s why we have an entire eco-friendly section on out website dedicated to green, clean sustainable products. From cleaning solutions to toilet roll and more, our products can help your organisation reduce its carbon footprint.
It isn’t just environmentally friendly products we sell, our waste services, too, can help you stay green. Our general waste service aims to divert up to 95% of waste away from landfill, and our recycling service can ensure your recycling goes back into the loop, helping create new packaging and products for the future.
For more information about our waste services, fill out the form below and our UK based team will aim to call you back within 24 hours.