News

IV drip bags to gumboots: how Hollywood Private Hospital is achieving big wins in recycling

May 31, 2022

Watering your garden while wearing gumboots might seem a far cry from a busy hospital theatre, but there is a close connection thanks to sustainability initiatives at Hollywood Private Hospital.

Staff are recycling masks, oxygen tubing and intravenous drip bags made out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to be turned into a wide variety of products, such as the gumboots sold at Bunnings.

Support Services Manager, Jonathan Reynolds, said by making small changes, staff are achieving big wins in sustainability for the hospital overall.

“We started the PVC recycling campaign 18 months ago and staff were really supportive,” Mr Reynolds said.

“Our PVC hospital waste is sent to a facility in Victoria, where it is processed then sold as recycled PVC resin to manufacturers to make products such as garden hoses and playmats.

“So far about 275kg of plastic bags (the weight of a vending machine) has been diverted from landfill.

“It takes approximately 2.6 kg of resin to make one pair of boots, so we have sent away enough PVC to make 105 pairs.”

Plastics are a significant share of hospital waste and most are sent to landfill, according to PVC Recycling in Hospitals. About 25 per cent of general hospital waste is PVC medical products.

Director of Corporate Services, Julianne Allan, said PVC recycling was one of many initiatives promoted by Hollywood’s Environmental Committee.

Some other sustainability programs include:

• Battery recycling – batteries from medical equipment, with more than 80 per cent charge, are sold to staff for household use. Batteries with less than 80 per cent charge are sent to an industrial recycling company for disposal.
• Re-usable fabric hair nets – to replace hair nets made out of single-use plastics.
• Environmentally friendly catering equipment – to replace plastic water jugs, cups, cutlery, plates and straws.
• Compostable medication bags – to replace plastic bags.
• Reducing the use of anaesthetic gas desflurane – switching to sevoflurane, which is not as harmful to the environment.

Ms Allan said recycling saves energy and conserves valuable raw material resources.

“Hollywood is leading the way in waste management and recycling, with sustainability initiatives across the campus helping to reduce the facility’s carbon footprint,” Ms Allan said.

Ramsay Health Care Chief Operating Officer of Hospitals, Greg Hall, said Caring for our Planet is one of the three pillars of Ramsay Health Care’s sustainability program.

“We acknowledge that climate change is a critical issue so we are focused on minimising our greenhouse emissions, cutting energy and water use, slashing our use of unnecessary plastics and increasing our recycling and sustainability initiatives,” Mr Hall said.

Clinical Facilitator Lana Kelly and Support Services Manager Jon Reynolds