Consumers often have more power than they realize to change the world for the better. If you are someone who would like to see less rubbish removal in the world, there are many simple actions you can take that will put pressure on businesses to move toward this goal. Here are a couple of good examples that won’t take much time but may be quite effective.
Speak To the Store Owner or Manager About Over Packaging
How many times have you been in the deli section of your local grocery store and seen items double wrapped or even tripled wrapped. For example, you may have see sandwiches wrapped individually and then two or three put on a plastic tray and wrapped again with more plastic. The same often happens in the produce section, the meat section, and at grab and go restaurants. The more packaging food items have, the more unnecessary rubbish removal is generated. This is a problem that can be easily solved once the business realizes it’s a problem.
When you witness these obvious examples of over packaging, you can do something about it. Ask to speak to the business owner or manager and very politely point out how the food item in question could have been wrapped with far less packaging. You can then suggest how they might use less packaging in the future. Most importantly, you can reinforce this request by suggesting that you will make a special point to buy the item in the future if you see it again with little to no packaging. Then, politely thank the manager and leave him or her to ponder over what you just said.
There is nothing more motivating to a business owner or manager than showing them an easy way to make more profit by catering to the needs and desires of their paying customers. Likewise, if they feel like they may lose money if they don’t change their ways, you can bet they will carefully consider changing their internal procedures. If the packaging changes in the future, grab the item, hold it up with one hand, and then give a big thumbs up to the manager with the other. They will be pleased and you may have started a chain reaction that could lead to less packaging throughout the entire store!
Encourage Rubbish Removal Recycling and Composting As a “Regular”
As consumers, we all have our favorite restaurants and other favorite haunts that we visit often. When businesses know you are a “regular,” i.e. you spend a great deal of money and time patronizing their business, you develop a more powerful voice than a first time customer because you are the backbone of that business. You can use this powerful voice for good and help reduce rubbish removal.
For example, suppose you see that one of your favorite restaurants is binning leftover good, where you know it will be taken to the landfill. This is a case where you can pull the business owner or manager aside and make a positive suggestion that he or she consider starting a compost pile in the back with the leftover food. They could then offer this compost to their customers who enjoy gardening as a free thank you gift. You could explain too how wonderful it would be if they grew their own herbs in the compost created from their own food scraps. You might mention too that this would be great positive publicity for their restaurant and would likely lure in new customers.
Here’s another good example. You could explain to the restaurant owner, who sees you in their restaurant all the time, that any food scraps they put in their rubbish removal bins automatically goes to landfills where it pumps out very harmful methane gas as it rots. If you are in the UK, you could also suggest that they instead set up regular bookings with Clearabee for their food scraps so it can be diverted from the landfill. Tell them it’s at least worth a phone call to Clearabee to find out what their rates would be for a regular pickup and ask how they would dispose of the rubbish removal. You might even jot down Clearabee’s number for them to make it super convenient.
Final Thoughts
Remember, one little action on your part as a consumer to a business can make a dramatic difference in how that business handles their rubbish removal. If you see a positive change due to your simple actions, make a special point to complimenting the business owner or manager about the change. Tell them that you will spread the news to your friends and post something on your social media.
You may even want to take a few moments to write a nice online review of the business, or update your old one, to reflect the change they made in how they handle their rubbish removal. Then, tell them about the review so they can read it. This will encourage even more positive steps along this line. As the consumer, you have a great deal of power… you just need to take a little bit of time and use that power for good.
