The Canary Wharf Group’s ‘Break the plastic habit’ programme has been commended by Sky Ocean Rescue.

Fiona Ball, group head of inspirational business & Sky Ocean Rescue, Sky, said the recycling and sustainability initiative was ideal for a near ‘micro-city’ such as the Canary Wharf estate.

‘Breaking The Plastic Habit’ is a 12-month programme to promote a culture of reduction, re-use and recycling to challenge single-use plastic within Canary Wharf.

“It’s a huge opportunity – a ‘micro-city’ is enclosed and you can control what comes in. Doing something jointly with partners [businesses on the estate] is good – with real business leaders making a commitment and taking a stance,” she said.

Up to 120,000 people travel to the Canary Wharf estate every day – both working and visiting.

John Garwood, managing director and group company secretary of Canary Wharf Group, said: “The aim was to encourage move away from throw-away plastic culture. ‘Break the plastic habit’ programme has enabled us to eliminate one million pieces of single use plastic from the estate and a further four million plastic items have been recycled.”

Martin Gettings, group head of sustainability at Canary Wharf Group, announced that 4.2m coffee cups have been recycled at the estate (much of each through using Smart Planet Technology’s reCUP), and cut the use of 1.2m straws. “This is not an initiative, this has to be business as usual,” he said.

Sky’s Ball added that up to 40m people have been made aware of the issues surrounding single-use issues through TV coverage on SKY, BBC and Netflix.

She confirmed that Sky’s own goals include a commitment to be single-use plastic-free on operations, products and supply chain by 2020, particularly product packaging sent to customers.

Last year Canary Wharf become the first UK site to offer a deposit return schemewith a functioning machine.

In January the Canary Wharf Group launched the HELPFUL mobile app – a plastic recycling and rewarding app.

HELPFUL simplifies and incentivises reuse and recycling for consumers, helping visitors to correctly recycle waste, switch to reusable products and collect rewards.

Participating retailers at Canary Wharf support the app with QR code points to claim reuse coin rewards, include Café Nero, Carluccio’s, Crussh, Eat, Krispy Kreme, Leon, Notes Coffee, Ole & Steen, Paul, Pret a Manger, Scribbler, Starbucks and Ted Baker.

Additionally, the Canary Wharf Group was included as one of the highest voted inspirational businesses driving sustainability forward in Edie’s Business Leadership Survey 2019 and named as an ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development – United Kingdom’ in the Capital Finance International Sustainability Awards 2018.