Skip the Plastic

Thanks to David Attenborough’s Blue Planet documentary the past few years have been a turning point in highlighting the dangers of excess plastic on our planet

In 2018 we started our Skip the Plastic campaign which aims to encourage all of our guests to:

Refuse

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Wherever you see our Skip the Plastic logo you will see a commitment to reducing our plastic consumption.

COVID-19 aside, we have been virtually plastic-free at Cohort since 2019.

Steps we have taken

• Stopped using bin liners in bedrooms
• Only use degradable or compostable liners in communal bins
• We no longer sell plastic products, replacing traditional plastic products with biodegradable alternatives such as bamboo
• Stopped selling (plastic) bottled water
• Installed a water bottle refill point in lounge
• Ensure all plastic wrapping is returned to our linen company for recycling
• Replaced all our single-use laundry sachets with paper bags
• All of our BioD cleaning products are bought in large refill containers to minimise unnecessary use of plastic bottles
• We make our own glass cleaner to minimise purchasing of plastic containers
• All plastic bags we find are put in a box for guests to reuse
• We incentivise purchasing reusable coffee cups by offering free coffee refills
• Awareness posters and stickers throughout the hostel

St Ives Plastic-Free campaign

We were the founding members of the St Ives Plastic free Steering Group and in conjunction with several other businesses in St Ives we set up the Plastic Free St Ives Campaign: This campaign is part of the wider Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Communities initiative which encourages towns and cities across the UK to take positive action to eliminate single- use plastic.

We built a steering group of local stakeholders to drive this campaign; created awareness, educated and worked with the community to reduce plastic consumption.

We earned St Ives Plastic Free accreditation in 2020 and Cohort itself is a plastic free champion.