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The University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust’s (UHP) Pharmacy team have been working hard to reduce the amount of single use plastics they generate to improve their carbon footprint and limit their impact on the environment.

As part of ‘Our People Our Planet Week’, the team attended a virtual conference on Quality Improvement for Greener Healthcare and Wellbeing on 28 September. The aim of the conference, supported by the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, was to showcase hospital-specific sustainability programmes.

The UHP Pharmacy team gave a 30-minute talk on swapping out single use plastic bags for paper bags, specifically the plastic bags used for the delivery of medicines from the pharmacy up to the point of delivery. These bags are typically used for a duration of two hours before they are then disposed of.

Replacing these bags has resulted in the elimination of approximately 56kg of single use plastic per month or 700kg annually. This adds up to the reduction of around 28,000 to 30,000 plastic bags per year which would have either ended up in landfill or the on-site incinerator.

Undertaking this change was part of the Green Plan Project, which has also seen the team successfully reduce the use of single use overshoes by 33% in the first year by introducing reusable clogs to wear when entering the aseptic preparation area.

Kirsty Wavish, Green Plan Programme Manager said: “The Pharmacy Team are a great example of how departments can contribute to the sustainability agenda and the Trust’s ambition to become a greener, more sustainable organisation. Their hard work is really paying off and brilliant they’re being given the chance to showcase their work nationally”.