Reconomy and Osborne team up to clean up the shores for the Great British Beach Clean
Employees from Osborne and Reconomy, recently came together to volunteer for two beach cleans on the Sussex coast.
Our first team landed in a very sunny Bognor Regis to assist BR Community Cleans, a local group that regularly meet to clean up the shore on either side of the pier. This is a busy stretch of beach, with many visitors throughout the year and the team amassed bags of rubbish, which otherwise would find its way out to sea.
More volunteers armed with their hi-vis and litter pickers headed to a busy Brighton the following week to help with the second clean.
Osborne Proposals Manager, Sarah-Lucy Ward was there and really enjoyed taking part, she told us: “It was an incredibly worthwhile event in which to participate. Lovely sunny day and I was amazed at some of the rubbish we collected. It feels great knowing that this will now be disposed of in the correct manner and not left to impact on and endanger our precious ocean environment.”
Osborne Sustainability Manager, Kirsty Dunne was so keen to volunteer she attended both beach cleans and explained why:
“The ocean is incredibly important to us as humans providing food and clean air, it plays a crucial role in climate change absorbing large amounts of carbon and excess heat. Waste, especially plastic waste destroys aquatic species, threatening our ocean life support system. 80% of waste in the ocean is land-derived, that’s why keeping our beaches clean is so important. There is no silver bullet to making our planet healthy again, however, through lots of meaningful action like this beach clean, we can make a big difference. Well done beach clean team!”
Both events were coordinated by Sarah Chatfield, Osborne Sustainable Procurement Officer and supported by Reconomy, the provider of Osborne’s waste management service. As an integral part of our supply chain both teams are well used to working collaboratively to keep our sites clean and safe. This like-minded partnership ensures events like these are organised as sustainably as possible. Volunteers were encouraged to bring reusable water bottles on the day and a refill station was provided, communications were sent digitally and left-over snacks and food were donated to a food bank.
Russell Fleetwood, Director of Sales and Service at Reconomy said: “Events like this are important for people’s wellbeing – getting the chance to volunteer out in the fresh air, together with colleagues to support their local communities. Waste, or resources as we like to refer to them, contributes to climate change, and it is essential that businesses and individuals are finding ways to reduce the amount of waste they produce, whilst also educating those around them. We value the close relationship we have with Osborne, and opportunities like this to collaborate and take action to clear up the spaces around us”.
After a lot of planning, Sarah was thrilled with the volunteers enthusiasm and their efforts to make our coastline cleaner, she told us:
“To be able to support BR Community Cleans was a fantastic opportunity to get to work with our local community and really understand what we can do to continue to support this small group and its organisers. I have found it personally rewarding to see the positive impact these events have made to the environment and to see my colleagues enjoying using their Community Days to help people in the areas in which we work.”