Positively Green

Environment Plymouth, who are an external organisation (of which the Trust is a member of) and provide a strategic voice for local environmental and sustainability concerns, asked the Trust to sign up to their Plastic Free Community Status about 3 years ago. UHP pledged to remove, eliminate or replace three items of plastics from everyday use. These items were as follows:

 

• Removal of plastic straws - Completed      
• Removal of plastic cutlery – Completed in retail areas
• Removal of single-use plastic cups from water fountains – work in progress - some wards have moved to using reusable cups.

 

Additional action the Trust  pledged to undertake was:

• Working with our suppliers to eliminate plastic packaging
• Producing a Sustainability Strategy for the next five years
• Working with healthcare organisations in Plymouth and Devon to seek to reduce the use of single-use plastics items

 

Environment Plymouth are now in the second Phase of this and went out to organisations again to make further pledges and asked for three actions to undertake now and then three additional actions to address in the future.

 

Having had a discussion with Procurement, and subsequently liaised with the Infection Control Prevention Team, the following items were suggested:

 

Remove, eliminate or replace the following items from everyday use:

1.	Replace single use Theatre hats for reusable ones
2.	Remove Gloves from dressing packs
3.	Reduce the number of plastic chest drains

 

In future we plan to address the following three items or challenges:

1.	Reduce and recycle single use surgical face masks
2.	Reduce the use of plastic sleeves
3.	Move from using single use glove tourniquets to a reusable alternative

 

The Sustainability Sub-Committee approved these pledges in December 2021 and were submitted to Environment Plymouth to be shared in the public domain. Subsequently, the Trust has now been awarded a Bronze Award for our commitment to a plastic free city.