{"id":6679,"date":"2018-04-20T09:57:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T13:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/?p=6679"},"modified":"2018-06-06T11:30:59","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T15:30:59","slug":"make-change-end-plastic-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/make-change-end-plastic-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"Make a change to end plastic pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>We live in a world that\u2019s increasingly filled with plastic \u2014 a substance that sticks around for a very long time. A plastic bottle, for example, can take 450 to 1,000 years to decompose in a landfill. Being aware of this fact and imagining mounds of plastic dominating the landscape can be a great incentive to make a change.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a waste and resources management specialist, and in the lead up to Earth Day, I\u2019m taking stock of what we can do to end plastic pollution \u2014 at an individual level and also what we can do collectively in our offices, communities and organizations.<\/p>\n<p>The key to addressing this problem is to live by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthday.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Plastic-Pollution-Primer-and-Action-Toolkit.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">five Rs<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reduce \u2013 minimize plastic consumption<\/li>\n<li>Refuse \u2013 refuse to accept these items<\/li>\n<li>Reuse \u2013 select products designed for multiple uses<\/li>\n<li>Recycle \u2013 recycle properly and as much as you can<\/li>\n<li>Remove \u2013 be part of the effort to remove plastic from our environment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For a week, heighten your awareness of plastic and start with these basics, including some simple ways to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.treehugger.com\/green-home\/11-easy-ways-reduce-your-plastic-waste-today.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reduce your plastic waste<\/a>. It\u2019s easier than you think and might just change your life for the better while having a positive impact on the environment.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things I love about my job is that I can use my expertise to not only benefit our clients, but also our workplace environments. At AECOM, we\u2019ve established \u201cGreen Teams\u201d that work to \u201cincorporate the principles of sustainability into our internal operations at the grassroots level.\u201d As part of the Nottingham office Green Team, our goals are good for the environment and also good for business. We work to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reduce operating costs<\/li>\n<li>Minimise environmental impacts<\/li>\n<li>Optimise the use of resources<\/li>\n<li>Build positive relationships with our community<\/li>\n<li>Enhance a healthy, happy and productive workplace<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In terms of our internal operations, we have plastic waste top of mind, whether encouraging the use of reusable water bottles or avoiding the use of plastic cutlery. To further our Green Team efforts, I\u2019m developing a research paper on best practices related to waste and resources at the company level, looking to see what others are doing in order to continue applying methods and processes that will make AECOM more sustainable. (Look for a follow-up blog!)<\/p>\n<p>As a company, AECOM contributes at all levels of the internationally recognised waste hierarchy, including working with our clients to help them avoid creating plastic pollution in the first place. Through close partnerships, we focus on truly understanding our clients\u2019 needs, ensuring we can provide solutions that are appropriate to the particular economic, social, regulatory and environmental conditions of the countries and regions where we work.<\/p>\n<p>As a multidisciplinary consultancy, our services range from providing high-level advice to government and financial institutions on procurement and policy issues, to construction supervision of individual waste facilities throughout the world. AECOM\u2019s technical knowledge of the patterns of growing waste and options for collection, transfer, treatment and disposal allow us to comprehensively analyse each situation and propose strategies and polices that are cost effective, practical, sustainable and achievable.<\/p>\n<p>What are the big or small steps you can take to end plastic pollution? Learn more at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.earthday.org\/yourjourney2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Earth Day Network<\/a> and \u201cbe the change\u201d to help <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/endplasticpollution?vertical=default&amp;src=hash&amp;lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#EndPlasticPollution<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We live in a world that\u2019s increasingly filled with plastic \u2014 a substance that sticks around for a very long time. A plastic bottle, for example, can take 450 to 1,000 years to decompose in a landfill. Being aware of this fact and imagining mounds of plastic dominating the landscape can be a great incentive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":6687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3693,1927,1984,87],"yst_prominent_words":[335,925,337,3514,3508,400,1158,3511,3512,609,577,3509,3513,3515,2311,868,3516,623,3510,452],"class_list":["post-6679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aecomblueprint","tag-corporate-responsibility","tag-environment","tag-sustainability"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/441"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6679"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}