A LOCAL corporate travel firm has decided to ditch single-use plastic after watching it pile up in the office.

Planet Pursuits, based in Purton, an award-winning independent travel and events company for businesses, initially banned single-use plastic from the office for six weeks in May and took steps like buying water bottle and a bag for life for each employee.

The company began refusing plastic promotional gifts and merchandise from suppliers and brought new kitchen facilities to encourage the team to make lunches and avoid supermarket packaging.

Now they have made the ban permanent and hope others can follow suit.

“We were just really shocked with the amount of plastic we were going through as an office,” said Louise Boyse, director of Planet Pursuits.

“We thought this is just crazy, we’re advising our corporate clients on how to travel more sustainably and were very aware of the environmental impact of travel.

“Now when purchase something for the office we’re very conscious of whether we actually need it and whether our clients want the merchandise we send out and have begun sending out pumpkin seeds instead.”

The company has also asked suppliers to donate any money to the Rainbow Trust charity instead of sending merchandise.

Millie Goodinson, environmental coordinator at Planet Pursuits, said: “As well as taking steps to limit the amount of plastic used at Planet Pursuits, we are doing our best to influence suppliers and clients too. As an agile company, we have the ability to be proactive and make positive changes quickly, leading to our plastic use dropping rapidly since the initiative began.

"We hope that our initiative gives our partners and clients the confidence to know they’re working with a company that cares and takes positive environmental action or even inspire them to make a plastic commitment themselves.”