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Meet Faye on Recycle Week

It’s Recycle Week, and we’re taking this opportunity to celebrate Faye Walsh, our extraordinary Practice Manager for Luton Town Centre Surgery, whose initiatives have changed the landscape for this base. Faye not only led Luton to become the first base to ditch single-use cups, but she also introduced the innovative concept of ‘Stationery Swap’.

Picture of Faye Walsh

How Does it Work?

Faye explains, “We set up a table in our main meeting room some months ago after I encouraged everyone to clear out their desks, drawers, and cupboards for any stationery they no longer use.” The Luton team grouped together with generous contributions of surplus stationery and has now been able to give these items a new purpose.

Faye continues, “Now, we’ve amassed quite a collection. Whenever a team member needs new stationery, they’ll check the swap table before asking for an order. If the table has what they are looking for, they can pick it up and take it away on the grounds they donate another item of stationery to take its place”. This ensures that we only ever place an order when an item is unavailable on the table or through other means.

Faye didn’t stop there! She’s also taken the decisive step to ban purchasing items like Blu-Tac, post-it notes, paperclips, and staplers, reminding us of the alternatives we already have in place. “We have desktop post-it notes and messaging services, not to mention a stockpile of staples and paperclips that we can already put to good use”.

Now it’s our turn

Inspired by this initiative, we’ve decided to expand the ‘Stationery Swap’ concept to more of our staff areas. This simple yet transformative change is a testament to how a single individual’s actions can lead to meaningful change, and we are proud to follow Faye’s lead in reducing waste and being more environmentally responsible.

“We’ve become more mindful of the waste of stationery and the impact it has, not only on our finances but on the environment too.”