Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's and Anita Rani’s War On Plastic campaign was an eye-opener for many people and certainly for the team at Sense Massage Therapy.
The news that most wet-wipes are 90% plastic came as a shock to us, as we understand it was to many others of the BBC series.
Sustainability Makes Sense
For years we have recommended that our therapists around the UK should use wet-wipes for cleaning down their massage chairs in-between clients. Hygiene is second only to safety, so we take this seriously, but the realisation that we were inadvertently creating plastic waste that was difficult or impossible to recycle took us completely by surprise.
In a typical month we have hundreds of therapists providing thousands of massages and in turn have used and thrown away at least as many wet-wipes and we are not prepared to have this continue in our name.
Goodbye to Wet-Wipes
That’s why in June 2019 we informed all our therapists that the use of wet-wipes is no longer recommended. Instead we recommend the use of an anti-bacterial spray alongside sustainable paper towels, preferably paper towels with PEFC or FSC forest certification.
Water on Tap
As well as switching from wet-wipes to sustainable paper wipes, we have also recommended that our therapists take their own multi-use water bottle with them when visiting customers, in place of buying disposable water bottles.
Our environmental policy has thus far ensured that we always use the most local therapists where possible for our clients in an effort to minimise resulting emissions resulting from our therapists’ travel, whether using private or public transport.
We are delighted to make such a positive change in our way of working to make our business more sustainable and we hope that this will encourage other business owners to take a stand and join in with the #WarOnPlastics.
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