Recycling at Nomad

Amy Hedley 20 Jan 2020

Amy is a QHSE Administrator in the QHSE team. She is currently studying her NEBOSH - National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety. She started at Nomad in March 2019.

Recycling at Nomad Digital, by Amy Hedley

At Nomad we think it’s important to be a leader in sustainability and do our bit towards climate change. Therefore, I have implemented ‘small change, big difference’, by encouraging my colleagues to recycle and use alternative eco-friendly products.

12 years to save the planet

It was released recently that we only have 12 years to change the planet, this resulted in a lot of action around the world, and I thought it would good for Nomad to be part of this.

60% of the population relies on fish as their main source of protein and the ocean provides 50% of our oxygen. Currently there is 8 million tonnes of plastic dumped in the ocean each year, this impacts 700 different species, they ingest plastic, mistaking it for food. This also impacts humans; microplastics have been found in the air in our food and in our drinking water.

The ‘top 4 culprits’ are plastic straws, plastic bottles, plastic coffee cups and plastic bags. So, I decided to try and to reduce the amount of these my colleagues use. When you start at Nomad you are given a reusable cotton goody bag containing: a reusable drinking bottle and coffee cup.

It’s all about educating

Our kitchen’s and office spaces have recycling facilities available along with signage to make it simpler for everyone. Recycling can be hard but by working collaboratively I am seeing a lot more people getting involved and becoming more engaged. I recently hosted global recycling workshops to educate my colleagues on recycling, what is going on in the world and how we can all help by making small changes. I showed them alternative sustainable products such as, beeswax food wraps, bamboo toothbrushes and paper/metal straws etc.

I have introduced recycling schemes like EcoBricks, Terracycle and Food2Go to encourage everyone to use sustainable items at home as well. Nomad’s Newcastle office now donates all of our plastic bottles to Sainsbury’s (UK supermarket) bottle bank, by doing this we earn vouchers and we use them to buy food for local food banks.

Small change, big difference

Nomad’s commitment to environmental management is underpinned by our continued certification to ISO 14001. Right now, we are improving alignment across our global offices, in relation to environmental compliance. Our head office regularly promotes environmental best practice and ideas to every corner of Nomad’s operations and stakeholders. I am responsible for tracking our waste volumes and company travel information, so I can measure and improve our environmental impact.

I’m hoping, through speaking about this regularly to my colleagues and by continuing to host recycling workshops, that I will see an increase in alternative products being used and more people making small changes.

Together we can make a such big difference.

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