A recycling initiative is growing out of the customer service office in Hull and is now rolling out across the site.
Led by the “Green Team” – Order Fulfilment Co-ordinators Richard Jones and Lucy Swarbrooke – it involves analysing waste produced in the Hull offices to see how much impact separate collections for recyclable materials would have.
The pair are also keen to raise awareness of sustainability and environmental issues in colleagues’ everyday lives.
Although the business as a whole is very focused on improving sustainability, this has mostly prioritised our operations, which are very energy intensive and present opportunities for recycling on a large scale.
Richard said: “We were looking at the recycling practice and we thought there were things we could improve at office level.
“We put the Green Team together and some priorities we wanted to promote, starting with quizzes on recycling, raising awareness on Earth Day and World Ocean Day, and then talking about what we wanted to do at one of our team meetings.”
In the UK, businesses are not currently required to separate waste in the same way that domestic properties are.
However, from the end of March next year, all but the smallest companies will be required to have separate collections for recycling and food waste, under the government’s Simpler Recycling reforms.
Richard said: “What we are doing now is separating office waste to see whether we are generating enough recyclable waste to justify a separate recycling collection.
“As separate collections are coming into force in March for businesses with more than 10 employees, we are getting a head start.
“We would then like to grow the Green Team across our UK sites and play a role in encouraging colleagues to separate their waste when the new regulations come into effect.”
Lucy added: “We are both very passionate about the environment. We wanted to make a difference on a personal level.
“Since we have started up the Green Team, we have seen there’s a lot of people who feel the same.”
If you would like to find out more about the Green Team, please email Richard or Lucy at rjones3@idealstandard.com or lswarbrooke@idealstandard.com