With India being the global host of this year’s World Environment Day on June 5 and ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ as the theme, Media.net, a global advertising technology company, has banned the use of plastic in its office premises. From plastic plates and cups to cellophane wraps, everything has been replaced with more eco-friendly materials.
While talking about the initiative, Priya Pillai, Associate Manager, HR at Media.net said, “We, at Media.net, conducted a quick study on the plastic usage in the organization and realized that a big chunk of the plastic menace come from cafeteria & during meal times. We then devised the 5 R Model: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Raise Awareness which has helped us drastically reduce the use of plastic in our office premises.”
He further elaborates the initiative and tells that as part of this model, we have formulated simple, easy to use or follow techniques such as
- Replacing all plastic plates and cutlery with stainless steel/ reusable ones
- Food waste segregation into wet and dry waste
- Encourage employees to carry their own mugs for tea and coffee
While informing about the positives of the initiative she informed that at one month post launching this initiative, we saw a drop in the dry waste accumulation from 190 kgs to 100 kgs. We have received a lot of positive reinforcement from employees on these measures and believe that employees will take forward these initiatives in their lives outside of work as well.
