United Molasses Group took part in this year’s Recycle Week, doing its bit to raise awareness of environmental issues and encourage colleagues to become more sustainable at home and work.

Louisa Brown, an administrator with UM Group, organised various activities out of the London office.

Among them were litter picking on the River Thames, an e-waste clean-up, zero waste training, a fundraising coffee morning and the introduction of a food waste caddy bin in the office.

Louisa, who joined UM Group earlier this year, said: “We organised a series of activities around people’s working days.

“I was joined by my colleagues Nigel Jones and Rauf Novruzov for a lunchtime litter pick close to Tower Bridge in which we collected dozens of items including about 80 vapes, cycle locks, plant pots and even an elephant necklace.

“The coffee and cake morning raised funds for the Woodland Trust which does so much good work creating wildlife-rich woods and planting native trees to benefit nature, climate and people.

“Another good activity saw us encourage colleagues to think about their e-waste with people taking a few minutes out of their busy days to delete unwanted junk mail and non-important files. This all plays its part in helping us reduce the carbon footprint of the business.

“We have also introduced a food waste caddy bin in the London office, mainly for our used tea bags and coffee granules including the biodegradable filters. The organic waste will be processed for compost and for renewable energy.”

The 20^th Recycle Week ran from October 16-22 under the theme of ‘The Big Recycling Hunt’. The main focus was on everyday items that can be recycled but are commonly missed.

Louisa added: “Recycle Week brings people and businesses together to do their bit to recycle more things, more often. We were delighted to do our bit to support this hugely important campaign.

“We want to build on the activities we undertook during the week in October and plan to hold other events throughout the year which will help to make us more sustainable and to reduce our carbon footprint.

“We carried out a staff survey to coincide with Recycle Week and colleagues came up with several good ideas which we will look to incorporate into future activity.”

For more information about Recycle Week and recycling in general visit www.recyclenow.com