A few years ago, we set out to eliminate all single use plastics from our company. As a manufacturer of scuba diving vehicles, eliminating plastics that might end up in the ocean is obviously a high priority.
We identified three main areas of effort. The packaging of our own products, the packaging of products we design for our clients, and our own activities within the company.
Our own packaging turned out to be relatively easy! We made some design changes, replacing bubble wrap and foam with cardboard inserts and paper, and sourced alternatives to resealable plastic bags. It didn't take long and came with an unexpected bonus at the end - we saved money! That was a big surprise for everyone.
Client packaging has also been reasonably successful. Clients appreciate our efforts to help them move in this direction, however deadlines and cost sometimes get in the way, and we end up using foam or bubble wrap occasionally.
Eliminating single use plastics within the company in all our activities has proved to be much harder, and anyone visiting our facility probably wouldn’t notice any changes. The primary reason being that our vendors still use a vast amount of plastic in their packaging. As a tiny company, we really can’t sway the packaging decisions of larger multinationals, but we live in hope, and try to reuse and recycle as much as possible.
Try it where you work, it might be easier than you think!