WASTE & SUSTAINABILITY


A Safer, Sustainable Future


James Lee, Managing Director of Cromwell Polythene, explains how effective waste management practices can help protect care home residents and staff, and our planet.


A wide range of waste is produced within the care sector. This includes medical material, such as used disposable gloves, dressings and sanitary waste. Additionally, there are many other types of waste, including plastic and cardboard packaging, as well as food.


Managing these different waste streams effectively helps to reduce the risk of infection for patients and staff. This is critical in any care home setting, and the coronavirus pandemic has brought this into sharp focus.


By ensuring waste management is a key focus, staff can ensure they are maintaining a high standard of care and hygiene, whilst also playing their part in a sustainable future. Many materials can be recovered and recycled into new products at the end of their service life; reducing environmental impact as well as being efficient and cost-effective.


It is of crucial importance for infection prevention and control that healthcare waste is segregated appropriately. Our healthcare range includes refuse sacks, wheeled bin liners, tiger stripe sacks for deep landfill of offensive/hygiene waste, yellow sacks certified to UN standards for incineration of hazardous waste and orange UN standard sacks for alternative treatment of infectious and potentially infectious waste at a licensed or permitted facility.


Recycling and re-use of other materials starts with effective segregation of the different waste streams, such as glass, plastic and food, to avoid contamination. Unfortunately, items can oſten end up in the incorrect bin. The value of paper, for example, is significantly reduced if it is contaminated with wet wastes such as food, and may even render it unrecyclable.


More efficient use of resources can be adopted across the care environment, from reduction of food waste to laundry management. For instance, our Wave range of personal protective equipment (PPE) includes recyclable water-soluble strip laundry bags for the safe containment of soiled linen. The strip and tie part of the bag dissolves in water allowing the contents to discharge into the wash, while the bag can be recycled aſter use.


- 30 - PROTECTIVE QUALITIES OF PLASTICS


The care sector is reliant on a range of plastic products, including PPE, clinical and special waste sacks, bin liners and recycling sacks, amongst others. Plastic also helps keep food fresher for longer, and enables the safe containment and dispensing of cleaning products.


In its summary of ‘Why do we need plastic packaging’, one of the key reasons the British Plastics Federation (BPF) highlights is that, “plastic keeps products free from contamination. This is particularly useful for medical packaging as they can be filled and sealed hygienically without any human intervention (e.g. sterile syringes).”


Plastic is incredibly versatile and, today more than ever, is a lifesaving material, enabling care teams to safeguard themselves and others from the risk of infection. Responsibly produced plastic can have a high recycled content (up to 100%) and can be reprocessed many times, helping to reduce landfill, and saving virgin material and associated energy.


One of our most popular options is our LowCO2t range of recycling sacks, which use minimal resources to achieve the same performance standards. This reduces the volume of plastic used, and cuts carbon emissions during production and transportation. We are also the sole UK distributor for compostable bags made from Ecopond biodegradable resin.


Responsibly sourced and managed plastic will continue to offer a convenient and cost-effective solution to many of modern- day life’s issues, especially in the care sector. The real debate shouldn’t be about making a choice between plastics and sustainability, but how we can use all resources more efficiently and help combat climate change through the use of the most resource efficient material available – plastic.


www.cromwellploythene.co.uk www.tomorrowscare.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40