NHS Plastic, Not So Fantastic?
The worlds plastic consumption is out of control, with single use plastics being our greatest problem and our usage has only risen during the pandemic. This is likely not news to most people, but did you know that the NHS is the largest user of single use plastic in the whole of Europe?
PPE Pandemic
“It is not the worst polymer, but it is generally estimated that solid polypropylene takes around 500 years to degrade.”
Medical-grade masks are commonly made from polypropylene, a very dense thermoplastic, which is non-biodegradable and non-recyclable, meaning that all these masks we are using everyday wind up in a landfill or improperly disposed of. From masks washing up on beaches throughout Asia to warnings that we soon run the risk of having more masks and latex gloves in the Mediterranean than jellyfish, we are running into a real problem. The plastic packaging market is set to grow by 5.5% in response to the pandemic as people look to single use items to combat the virus.
NHS Plastic Addiction
Even before the pandemic’s influence on the amount of single-use PPE being thrown into the bin every day, this is a huge problem within the NHS which already accounted for 4% of the countries carbon emissions. According to the NHS supply chain, the percentage of plastic waste within NHS waste streams is significantly higher than that of other industries with plastics making up 22.7% total of all waste, 13.7% being plastic film and 9% being hard plastic. A single clinic, with about 50 patients daily will dispose approximately 500 plastic aprons and 1,000 gloves every week. Multiplied by the number of outpatient clinics running in all trusts, the waste produced becomes immense. Trials have begun on whether solutions like reusable face masks could possibly be an option to reduce this impact, but there is still research to be done into how many washes the viral protective film will sufficiently last.
What is being done?
“It’s right that the NHS and our suppliers should join the national campaign to turn the tide on plastic waste. Doing so will be good for our environment, for patients and for taxpayers who fund our NHS.”
The NHS has a huge potential influence on the green economy and could dramatically reduce the number of plastics currently being procured and disposed of. There are some initiatives already being put in place in an effort to reduce this. One of the most recent put in place late 2019 was the NHS single use plastics pledge. This looked to gradually cut down on the whopping 163 million plastic cups, 16 million pieces of plastic cutlery, 15 million straws and two million plastic stirrers bought in the space of one year over the time span of 12 months in order to bring this number down to zero.
The next step for the NHS must be to look into areas such as reusable PPE and the need for single use plastics in sanitary areas.
If you are interested in learning more about the use of plastics in the NHS and how we should be moving forward to reduce this, please come join us for a free one-hour webinar ‘Removing Plastics from the NHS’ on 29th July at 11am. You can sign up for your free tickets here.