We all know some of the effects that plastics have on the environment, but let's look specifically at plastic pollution.
Plastic pollution causes harm to humans, animals and plants through toxic pollutants. It can take hundreds or even thousands of years for plastic to break down so the environmental damage is long-lasting. (Harrabin BBC, 2020)
It affects all organisms in the food chain from tiny species like plankton through to whales. Toxins work their way up the food chain when plastic is ingested and can even be present in the fish people eat. (Non Plastic Beach, 2019)
With the above in mind, we at Leader Optec are trying to do our part by replacing our single use plastic packaging with more sustainable solutions, and to ultimately use zero single-use plastics within our packaging by the end of 2020.

Getting rid of all plastics could be the wrong solution to saving the world, but one thing is for certain from Leader Optec and that is replacing “single-use” plastics bags, with a recyclable, compostable, biodegradable product. Plastic packaging is also lightweight and strong — this means we use fewer vehicles and less fuel to transport it. Plastic packaging makes a positive contribution to saving resources and reducing emissions.

We have started to make some changes in house, all tape from patch leads to packaging used within Leader Optec is now 100% recyclable and the material is paper. Bubble wrap bags for pre-terminated solutions are now replaced with 100% Recyclable, Compostable, Biodegradable paper bags.
All these solutions have been thoroughly tested and do not lose any strength than our original packaging.
Next step for Leader Optec is find a greener solution to replace single use Zip bags, if anyone has any solutions or recommendations please feel free to get in touch with myself.
Kyle Thomas, kylethomas@leaderoptec.com

Bibliography
Carter, B., 2020. The Impact of Packaging on the Environment: Is Plastic the Only Demon?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ecoandbeyond.co/articles/the-impact-of-packaging-on-the-environment/#:~:text=The%20impact%20of%20plastic%20packaging%20on%20the%20environment%20is%20huge.&text=Plastic%20can%20help%20to%20reduce,leads%20to%20more%20food%20spoilage.
[Accessed 17 July 2020].
Harrabin BBC, R., 2020. Plastic packaging ban 'could harm environment'. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51040155
[Accessed 28 July 2020].
Non Plastic Beach, 2019. The effect of plastic pollution on the environment. [Online]
Available at: https://nonplasticbeach.com/blogs/latest/how-does-plastic-harm-the-environment#:~:text=Plastic%20pollution%20causes%20harm%20to,like%20plankton%20through%20to%20whales.
[Accessed 27 July 2020].