Last update: 16/02/2022

Every 60 seconds, about a million drinks (mainly in plastic containers) are sold worldwide. That massive amount plus the other things that come in plastic add up to more than 350 million tonnes a year. Reducing, reusing and recycling plastic is key in countering the devastation wreaked by climate change. 

Plastics are a major source of pollution on Earth. Unbridled manufacturing and low recycling rates of plastic products threaten our planet. Despite heightened awareness about recycling, we’re still far from turning things around. 

Our oceans alone hold more than 8 million tonnes that come out of rivers. The United Nations warns that there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050 if we don’t take forceful action against the devastation it’s causing to our planet. 

Reduce, reuse and recycle to fight climate change

A plastic bottle is estimated to take about 1,000 years to decompose (or 450 years if it’s left outside). Consumers play an important role in reducing pollution. Following the “three Rs” (reduce, reuse and recycle) is a way to do it. 

• Reduce: we can take this primary step when using water, electricity or gas (e.g., switching off devices or turning off the tap when we're not using them), or even when selecting items at the supermarket (e.g., products from close to where we live waste less on transport).
• Recycle: we can do this simple act by sorting waste into specific containers.  Processing recycled waste properly not only reduces gases and toxic waste, but also leads to new manufactured products. 
• Reuse: this is when we repurpose things for a “second life”, like turning glass food jars into pen holders or old clothes into dust rags. 

Our environmental duty

At Santander, we’re serious about sustainability. We're aiding our customers’ transition towards a green economy, and our Group and subsidiaries have eco-friendly initiatives across our footprint. 

At Santander Argentina, we’re working with co-ops to process waste from our main offices and branches in towns with recycling systems. Read more in this article (in Spanish) by Santander Post.

In Spain, in 2019 we became the first bank to receive “Zero waste” certification from AENOR for waste management and employee awareness measures at the Santander Group City, for which as much as 90% of the waste we make goes back into the value chain.

Our Group's milestones include carbon-neutrality in all operations and, this year, we’re working on eliminating unnecessary single-use plastic at our branches. Other goals we've set for ourselves are sourcing electricity entirely from renewable resources by 2025 and achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.