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SWH stops 328,000 pieces of plastic entering landfill

  • Enviromental sustainability
Friday, 04 Mar 2022

There’s no denying that the healthcare industry has a heavy footprint when it comes to single-use waste.

For every surgery, procedure or clinical interaction there are a number of used syringes, masks, gloves, straws and the like that are destined for landfill, and in order to ensure each item is sterile and safe to use, often these items come heavily packaged.

However SWH’s Clinical Consumables Product Advisor Steph Hughes and the Sustainability Committee’s Waste Working Group have been working hard to change that, one plastic product at a time.

Working closely with providers SWH have helped trial and develop biodegradable and compostable kidney dishes, injection trays, straws, denture cups and sterile anaesthetic packs, with fully compostable packaging. Each product can be placed into a FOGO bin and processed at an industrial compost facility.

By replacing some of the most used hospital medical supplies with biodegradable and compostable products in just one year, SWH have prevented 328,000 pieces of plastic ending up in landfill including:

  • 160,000 Biodegradable patient straws
  • 45,000 Biodegradable injection trays
  • 80,000 Biodegradable kidney dishes
  • 10,000 Compostable Denture Pots and Lids
  • 33,000 Compostable Anaesthetic Trays

Page last updated: 30 November 2023

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