Essex Plastic Pledge organisations pack

Essex County Council colleagues with their reusable cups and bottles

Saturday 1 February 2020

Thank you for joining the Essex Plastic Pledge. We’re really pleased your organisation is taking part. Plastic has become a real problem for the planet but together and by making small changes, we really can make a difference.

This resource pack has been designed to help your organisation achieve your pledge with hints, tips and resources.

Over the next year the Love Essex team will be on-hand to support. We’d love to hear your good news stories and achievements so please keep us up to date by tagging us into posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using @loveessexuk.

Find out what plastic waste your organisation throws away

When trying to reduce plastic waste in your organisation, it’s good to know how much plastic is currently being thrown away. It will help you decide which items are most common, where you can make the biggest impact and allow you to monitor the impact of any changes you make.

If you are looking to complete a waste audit in your organisation, you can download our easy to follow waste audit guide (PDF, 244.81KB).

Ways to avoid single-use coffee cups

Engage with staff, customers and visitors to encourage them to avoid using single-use coffee cups by:

Running a communication campaign and displaying the reusable coffee cup poster around your organisation. Download our poster to encourage people to reduce their single-use coffee cups (PDF, 605.00KB).
Provide ceramic or reusable mugs for meeting
Ban single-use cups in your canteens
Introduce a small charge on single-use coffee cups and encourage reusable cups. Essex County Council did this with a 15p charge leading to more than 50% reduction in the number of single-use coffee cups sold. Read all the details in our case study (PDF, 90.15KB).
Switch your drinks machines to a more sustainable option that does not offer single-use cups or capsules. There are many machines that now use bulk bags of coffee grounds and reusable cups or mugs to dispense hot drinks.

You’ll be surprised the difference even some small changes can make to the number of single-use cups being thrown away.

Ideas to avoid single-use plastic bottles and cups

There are many ways to avoid single-use plastic water bottles and cups being thrown away in your organisation.

Engage with staff, customers and visitors to refill their reusable water bottle rather than purchasing single-use plastic bottles. Download the reusable water bottle poster (PDF, 572.99KB) to display around your organisation.
If you have water dispensers in public areas, remove any single-use plastic cups to encourage staff and visitors to refill their reusable water bottles.
Provide a small stock of washable cups for visitors and if someone forgets their reusable water bottle.
Could your organisation become a free water refill station? Refill is a national scheme where local businesses can sign-up to offer free tap water to anyone wanting to fill their reusable water bottle on-the-go. Read the case study on how your organisation could sign up to become a Refill station (PDF, 136.62KB).

Encourage waste-free lunches

Waste-free lunches are a great way to cut down on single-use items and help the environment, and they also promote sustainability awareness in staff, visitors and customers.

There are many ways to cut down on waste at lunch time.

If bringing lunch from home, use a lunch box, reusable container or wax wrap instead of a plastic bag
Buy snacks such as crisps, nuts, biscuits etc. in bulk and use a reusable container
Choose fruit for a healthy, no packaging needed!
Avoid single-use plastic or wooden cutlery, and instead have a supply of washable cutlery in your canteens, or encourage staff to bring in their own set from home. Read the case study on how Essex County Council removed single-use plastic cutlery at County Hall (PDF, 92.20KB).

Share plastic reduction messages with staff, visitors and customers

Sharing the message on way to reduce plastic means your whole organisation can work together to make a difference. You could run a communication campaign or create a short video to share how your organisation is reducing it’s single-use plastic on social media. Your audience or customers will love to hear the changes you’re making! To help, download posters, social media posts and newsletter content (ZIP, 2,873KB) to share with your audience or customers.

Run meetings and events using less single-use plastic

If your organisation often runs events, you’ll be pleased to hear that there are many ways you can make events greener and use less single-use plastic.

Ban plastic straws and single-use cups
Book a catering company that provides plates, cutlery and cups… there are now businesses in Essex where you can even hire party kits.
Send a polite reminder before meetings asking attendees to bring their own water bottle and reusable cup for refreshments
Provide a jug of water and washable cups. If you’re using a catering services, could they do the same?

For more ideas, download our plastic reduction events guide (PDF, 179.47KB).

If your organisation sells items, try and use less packaging

Many items will be delivered to your organisation in plastic packaging. Why not speak to the different suppliers and ask if they are able to help with items which come in less or no plastic packaging.

Implement a plastic recycling collection

(That's if you don't already have one). Across Essex many local councils and commercial waste operators offer a recycling collection, so if you’re not already recycling your plastics why not get in touch with them for a quote. By recycling, the reduction in general waste costs can often save you money.

Tell us your own ideas – things we may have missed!

There are lots of ways you can reduce your plastic waste. If you can think of any different ways that will work at your organisation, we’d love to hear about them. If they work for you, they may also help other organisations to reduce their plastic waste.

Plastic waste reduction resources and activities

You can find all of the plastic waste reduction guides, content and resources for your organisation below. To get started, simply download the resources you want to use. Or you can download all of the resources at once.

Download the waste audit guide (PDF, 244.81KB)

Download the reusable water bottle poster (PDF, 572.99KB)

Download the reusable coffee cup poster (PDF, 605.00KB)

Download plastic reduction resources to share with staff, visitors, customers (ZIP, 2,873KB)

Download the plastic reduction events guide (PDF, 179.47KB)

Download a case study on how to remove single-use plastic cutlery (PDF, 92.20KB)

Download a case study on how to reduce single-use coffee cups sold (PDF, 90.15KB)