22 Ways for Businesses to Take Part in Zero Waste Week 2022!
Zero Waste Week 2022, takes place 5th-9th September and we’ll be celebrating our 15th annual campaign!
While we won’t be giving away the theme until the first day, there are plenty of things you can do to get your staff and colleagues on board.
Here are 22 ideas to get you started:
1. Appoint a waste prevention team to brainstorm ideas, raise awareness and motivate staff throughout the week. Download our free logos, images and posters to help you.
2. Take a waste audit – supply clear bin bags for waste for a week and see what people are throwing away. No blaming and shaming; keep this one fun!
3. Once you’ve done your waste audit, see if you can:
• Swap products from a disposable option to a reusable one.
• Pick an item where you could purchase a recycled option.
• Look for refill opportunities for products like ink cartridges.
• Find concentrated products for cleaning supplies.
4. Set up a space outdoors as a ‘staff garden’. Compost food waste, tea bags and banana skins and grow some of your own food.
5. Run a repair café. From replacing a button to repairing a puncture to fixing a remote control to gluing a child’s toy; get staff to bring in that one annoying item and learn to fix it together. It’s a fun way to learn a new skill.
6. Organise a community litter pick.
7. Ask suppliers to take back bulk packaging for re-use.
8. Provide reusable cups and glasses for staff rather than disposable ones.
9. Declutter an area of your premises and donate items to your local scrap store, furniture reuse project or computers for Africa.
10. Ban the bin! During Zero Waste Week remove individual bins from desks and encourage staff to use communal recycling bins
11. Raise money for your favourite charity by setting up a recycling collection for mobile phones and ink cartridges.
12. Organise a ‘pot luck lunch’ among staff and share ideas on how you can reduce food waste at home.
13. Hold a film screening of a movie focused on waste and sustainability and hold a discussion afterwards.
14. Offer Zero Waste Week offers, discounts or giveaways to clients and customers.
15. Set all printers to print double sided and switch to draft quality where possible.
16. Set up a Terracycle brigade for disposable biros and other ‘non-recyclable’ products.
17. Ask everyone to bring in coats, blankets and towels they do not need any more and give all the donated ‘winter warmers’ to a homeless or animal shelter charity.
18. Hold a stationery or uniform amnesty – a ‘no questions asked’ drop off point for staff to return excess stationery / uniforms.
19. Set up a collection point for unwanted clothing, toiletries and bedding for a local homeless / women’s shelter.
20. Swap Event – Encourage staff to bring in things they no longer use or need (you can decide on a theme such as books, cds, dvd, clothes, tools or children’s toys). Staff can take something in exchange for something they donate. Unwanted items can be taken to a charity shop at the end of the week.
21. Run a photo competition on your social media channels to encourage staff to show off their reuse or refill ideas. Remember to use the #ZeroWasteWeek hashtag – In previous years the hashtag has trended and reached over 50 million impressions!
22. And remember to celebrate your achievements at the end of the week!
Want more inspiration?
Anna is here to help! You can book Anna to help you set up your own campaign or she’ll run a workshop or talk for your staff.
Find out more about options and costs here.
Look at some of our inspiring Zero Waste Week Business Heroes from previous years:
Ricardo-AEA, who came up with an innovative way to reduce paper usage.
MAR Services, who installed a carrier bag reuse point at their head office.
Northampton General Hospital, who held lots of events to educate staff including a Big Bra Hunt. They even managed to salvage precious metals from their waste stream.
The Wellbeing Farm, who reduced their landfill waste from 6 bags a week to just one half during Zero Waste Week!