This is a paid collaboration.
You probably know by now that I have a few different avenues to my business. To begin with, I just wanted to make things work, I think we all do. We figure out where we want to be and drive hard to get there. Perhaps further down the road we start to question our practices, our work flow and how we’re doing things. I’ve always been honest in my business, I have morals and principles I stick to, but I never really thought about the plastic I use within my businesses and side hustles.
Make A Positive Impact
I started to though and wanted to make positive changes to stop using unnecessary and single use plastics within my processes. I watch a lot of documentaries and series on various things but some of the most memorable take place on islands. Ed Stafford sees if he can survive inhospitable places on the planet and one beach he found himself on was covered in plastic. I also watched Monty Halls and his family in the Galapagos and the plastic impact there is terrifying. We’re ruining the place where we live with plastic. This has made me see I need to use what I do to help make a change.
My Side Businesses
One of the businesses I run is an online sock website, selling oddsocks. So the pairs match or have a link in some way, be it design or colour, but they are different. For many years I was using plastic mailing bags for sending my orders out. One size, so depending on the amount that was ordered, they could be folded over. They could fit four pairs in at maximum capacity or they could fold if less was ordered. I needed them to be waterproof and protect the items. When I started looking though, I soon found packaging which was ocean friendly, 100% biodegradable and completely plastic free. Cardboard boxes are also available for larger orders. With every order I’m managing to use sustainable packaging so my customers can get their products without so much of an impact on the environment. Think about how many parcels and packages are sent every day. A tiny 1% change away from plastic packaging would be incredible. Why stop there though, why not a 10%, 25% or more?
Other Changes I’m Making
There are a few other things I’m trying to do in my business. Even though I work from home so I don’t have a water cooler with plastic cups I could get rid of, it doesn’t exempt me from making changes. From recycling toner cartridges to buying a stainless steal water bottle to fill up when I work away from the home office. I have a fabric bag that I carry my orders in when I’m going to the post box or office. The coffee I buy is in paper packaging rather than plastic. We buy bars of soap from independent retailers for our bathrooms, including the downstairs toilet next to my office. I am buy no means perfect and there is so much more that I could and should do. But lots of little changes add up.
Can You Make A Change?
So the question is, are you able to make just one change today in your plastic use? Maybe you can make suggestions to the ‘powers that be’ in your company? Is the packaging you use to ship out products plastic free? Even having your own water bottle or reusable container for your lunch is a step in the right direction. Let’s make change together.
