FM’s role in helping to reduce single-use plastic across the built environment

CONTRACT CATERER’S VIEW
ALLISTER RICHARDS, 
MANAGING DIRECTOR OF GATHER & GATHER

There has been a global, mass movement behind the plastic catastrophe our planet is facing. The most obvious effort to make in the catering sector is to switch from single-use plastic to more reusable and sustainable alternatives; Gather & Gather was the first UK contract caterer to publicly announce the removal of plastic straws from its 276 catering sites. This move saves over 80,000 straws from clogging up our landfills every year. However, as we know, simply removing plastic straws is not enough to make real impact and protect our oceans. We all need to do more.

For any caterer, waste reduction should also consider what we buy and not just what we sell. For example, for one client, Gather & Gather audited 5,000 product lines to better review how plastic coming in to the business could be avoided. Consequently, we noticed that by ordering three-gallon pergals of milk rather than two litre plastic bottles, we could dramatically reduce the amount of plastic being discarded. Gather & Gather also bake onsite wherever possible to avoid buying single-wrapped products. By being more mindful with procurement, we are able to reduce the demand for single-use plastic and therefore the production of it.

Single-use plastic is ingrained in our sector, and we have implemented many more changes in a bid to challenge this. At one client site, we reduced the amount of single-use plastic by 90 per cent in just two weeks; this was achieved by giving each employee a reusable cup (saving 7 tonnes of rubbish), swapping sugar sachets for small containers (saving 2 million packets) and swapping plastic bottles for cans or glass (saving 8 tonnes of plastic), among other efforts. These incredible results show that when alternative options are given, we can massively reduce the need for single-use plastic.

And it’s not just plastic we need to consider either. Single-use products are rife in the industry. Take serviettes for example. We recognised we needed to do something about this and launched our ‘Save our Serviettes’ campaign in 2017, which resulted in only 100 per cent recycled napkins being offered in canteens. This also resulted in the reduction of serviette waste of 6.69 million napkins over one year.

Another effective way of reducing the amount of plastic in corporate offices is by working with and educating our client’s workforce. If consumers are armed with the right knowledge, they will be better placed to make informed decisions when they visit our sites. We need to make it as easy as possible to help customers reduce their plastic uptake; just look at the positive impact the latte levy has had on coffee culture’s attitude to reusing cups. We have seen huge success with KeepCups (a reusable coffee cup made from eco-friendly material) and have sold 60,000 since 2017.

As workplace caterers we have a unique opportunity to influence business and consumers at the same time and we must take our responsibility seriously in leading the way to plastic free kitchens dining. We want to see more innovative campaigns that result in positive action and remain strong in our belief that together we can transform the industry’s attitude to plastic. 

WASTE MANAGEMENT COMPANY’S VIEW
STEPHEN HILL, 
HEAD OF SALES AT GRUNDON WASTE MANAGEMENT

The trouble with single-use plastics, or any other single-use item, is that they’re often so commonplace that sometimes even careful scrutiny can fail to spot a plastic tray or paper cup – even when it’s right under our noses.

Facilities managers can do more to bring their teams together and come up with alternative solutions to the problem of single-use plastics. By having regular meetings with their in-house catering teams and their waste management provider, FMs can look at how best to reduce unnecessary packaging or implement their own ‘green teams’ to drive sustainability initiatives.

Easy wins include removing single-use plastic cups, using glasses for water, refillable bottles and reusable coffee cups.

Companies need to look at all the waste they are generating. And waste management experts such as Grundon can audit a company’s waste and give practical advice on how it can be minimised further.

Grundon will review the waste and work out how much of it is avoidable, as while there might be a higher cost to bringing in china, glass and other reusable receptacles to replace single-use plastics, a company can often easily make that up in the reduced waste management costs over the longer term.

The drive to reduce single-use plastics and other wastes is often being driven by individuals. There is a definite change of behaviour – I see it in coffee shops up and down the country where the number of people bringing in reusable cups has risen dramatically. But if they work in a company where china and stainless-steel cutlery are not available, those same people who are choosing to change their behaviour outside the workplace, don’t have a choice within the work environment. Facilities managers have a responsibility to meet or exceed employee’s sustainable behaviour.

Some organisations which are keen to be seen to do the right thing sometimes make an error in not thinking the problem through far enough. One organisation wanted to buy in single-use compostable food packaging that could be safely disposed of, along with any food remains, at an anaerobic digestion facility.

To them it sounded like a great idea. The problem was that the closest anaerobic digestion facility that could take the disposed packaging was a considerable distance away, which further added to their carbon footprint.

Unfortunately, an organisation’s best intentions can ultimately turn out to be a hollow victory if they haven’t considered all the options available to them. Situations like this can be avoided by engaging with key stakeholders such as the in-house catering teams and waste management providers who could add value from the start.

But of course, however much an organisation can reduce or reuse materials, there will always be some items that will need to be sent for recycling and reprocessing.

We offer a mixed recycling service, where the waste is returned to our depot and mechanically separated into bales of cardboard, paper, plastics and other waste types which are then sent off to be reprocessed.

We’re currently exploring a novel idea to use waste single-use plastic bottles in a more sustainable way. The bottles, which are made from the popular plastic polymer Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), can be sent to a reprocessing facility where the plastic is flaked and recycled for use in the production of ‘green’ office furniture. We can then offer our customers the opportunity to buy high quality, robust and attractive office furniture made out of the plastic waste they’ve sent for recycling.

This is proof that the circular economy can work.