Several hospitals across the state are working to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Bendigo Health have stepped up their efforts, developing a number of recycling initiatives that has seen the service so far recycle 32% of its overall waste.
Its recycling strategies include donating used supplies to local wildlife rescue centres and sending single-use items and old uniforms to textile upcycling company, Upparel, to repurpose the materials.
Last year, the Victorian Government announced Medsalv – a medical device remanufacturer will establish a new sustainable manufacturing – research and development site in Victoria that will recycle medical equipment into new products. Medsalv collect single-use medical devices and remanufactures them for safe use in a process that involves cleaning, testing, inspecting, packaging and relabelling of products to prevent them from going into landfill.
Victorian Minister for Health, Mary-Anne Thomas, says by cutting down on the volume of medical waste that goes to landfill we can continue to drive down our carbon footprint.
“Many of these recycling initiatives are staff-led, and it’s a credit to the dedication, talent and resourcefulness of our healthcare workforce,” Ms Thomas says.
In Regional Victoria, South West Healthcare is tackling the problem of plastic waste at their hospital head on, phasing out single use plastics entirely by introducing compostable replacements for items such as injection trays, kidney dishes, and anaesthetic packs.
Replacing these items has so far kept more than 1.5 million pieces of plastic from landfill in the last 12 months, while collaborative efforts with other local health services across the region takes this figure to an impressive 3.7 million pieces of plastic removed from the system.
Parliamentary Secretary for Health Infrastructure, Tim Richardson says, “it is great to see our health services becoming more sustainable and environmentally friendly while continuing to save Victorian lives.”
