Buttercup’s Hero

One person can make a difference. Take Debbie Ecclestone who works as a storeperson at Buttercup Bakery’s Malaga factory east of Perth. She is passionate about the environment and has made a huge difference to her workplace.

When Debbie joined the organisation less than 2 years ago it didn’t take long for her to suggest they explore other options to deal with what used to be a staggering amount of waste, especially cardboard and plastic.

With her colleagues, Debbie has transformed the way Buttercup sees waste. From plastics and cardboard to scrap metal and waste oil, Debbie puts the labels on bins, growls at those who don’t read them and puts her personal energy into creating a recycling-friendly work environment. Now even their plant in Bunbury sends their plastics up to Perth for recycling (they simply load it into trucks that are already heading that way).

Recycling has made a big difference to the bottom line of Buttercup’s waste costs, too. Instead seeing waste as something they need to pay to dispose of, they now see a resource that they can recoup some money on. “We were paying them, now they are paying us instead.” says Supply Chain Manager, Jan Davies.

Debbie has the support and encouragement of Buttercup’s management who are now about to launch a new phase of environmentally friendly practices at their Malaga food processing site which will serve as a pilot program that can be implemented in their other locations.

Here’s some ideas to borrow from Buttercup Bakery:

When making breadcrumbs they take off the wrappers. These are now all recycled – along with those blue packing straps.

They are introducing special “Walks” focused on safe recycling practices into Buttercup’s employee induction and ongoing training efforts.

They turn over used paper in their printer and also make notepads simply by stapling together pieces of paper.

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