Positively Green

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust relies on sustainability conscious staff to help reduce our organisation’s carbon footprint. Without the efforts of individuals like Carly, a nurse on Pencarrow ward who has been driving recycling, we would struggle to reach our sustainability goals and inspire others to take action.

Carly has been a recycling champion for around 8 years- this sustained effort is born out of a real drive to do her bit to lessen UHP’s impact on the environment. If every department had a Carly, we’d be on our way to our sustainability goals in no time!

A bug bearer of Carly’s was the unrecycled milk cartons and feeders. With a small amount of staff education, a simple system (exclusively milk bottles in one bin and feed bottles in another. Rinsed with no lids) and a hefty amount of determination, Carly recycled 500 milk bottles and 120 feed bottles in 1 month with zero recycling contamination. She most certainly wins the Sustainability Seal of Approval for all her hard work!

Excellent waste segregation practices like this allow UHP to recycle more which is better for the planet. As Recycle Now’s website explains, increased recycling helps to reduce the need for landfill and more costly forms of disposal. Recycling also reduces the need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining and processing raw materials all of which create substantial air and water pollution. This helps to save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.

Improving recycling practices and waste segregation is ALWAYS worth it. Recycling stops tonnes of waste being buried in landfill and in the UK, saves about 10-15 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year, the equivalent of taking 3.5 million cars off the road. Read more about why recycling is important

Want to be a recycling champion like Carly? Get in touch with us plh-tr.sustainability@nhs.net