Airedale NHS Foundation Trust has opened two new recycling bins across its sites for members of the public to drop off walking aids that they no longer use. The bins have been funded by the Trust’s Therapy Services team after they identified that a large number of walking aids were not being returned when patients no longer needed them.

Once the walking aids have been dropped off, they are inspected, cleaned and put back into circulation if they are found to be safe and fit for purpose. If they do not meet health and safety requirements, they are condemned and the raw materials are recycled.

Reusing a refurbished walking aid is, on average, 87% lower in carbon emissions than issuing a new walking aid.

The talented catering teams at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust are cooking up a storm with new patient menus!

They’ve recently completely revamped the menus to not only give patients the balanced nutrition they need to get back on their feet – but also to keep the planet healthy too. By making changes to just 10 meals in their three-week patient menu rota, they’ll cut their carbon footprint by 58.95 tons a year. That’s the same amount of carbon you’d use driving round the equator eight-and-a-half times (214,872 miles)!

Facilities Services Manager Karl Cliff, who has led on the change, said: “We’re making some really simple changes, but it’s going to make a huge difference. One of the things we’re doing is cutting back on the amount of red meat we use, as this has a really high carbon footprint. Alongside this, we’ve introduced more plant-based and vegan options, which is also something our patients have been asking for.”

Barnsley Hospital is one of the early adopter Trusts in introducing re-usable, eco-friendly operating theatre gowns and caps. This initiative is part of its commitment to achieving NHS net zero targets and improving its impact on the climate and environment.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated plastic pollution through the high use of personal protective equipment (PPE).  The journey of a single use PPE gown starts from the creation of polypropylene from refined natural gas feedstock.   The PPE gowns are then manufactured using coal and oil-based energy and transported 5,000 miles by sea. After a single use, the PPE items are then transported to a waste plant where they are incinerated at high temperature emitting high levels of pollution into the atmosphere.

To combat the harmful environmental impacts of single use PPE, we created a pilot studies in partnership with laundry provider Elis to introduce the usage of reusable PPE. Following the successful results of this pilot, including engagement and feedback from staff we will now be switching from single use disposable theatre caps and gowns to environmentally friendly, reusable alternatives made from cloth. The theatre caps will also be personalised with staff names and roles.

Our emergency and urgent care department lends out more than 50 pairs of crutches a week, resulting in more than £30,000 a year.

Returning your medical equipment to our hospitals is quick and easy, and means that we can invest more money into looking after our patients.

You can return equipment to the University Hospital of North Tees or the University Hospital of Hartlepool. However, you might have received equipment from Tees Community Equipment Service. This can be indicated by a yellow receipt and must be returned directly to them.

Three inhaler recycling bins in the outpatients department which patients and families can drop their used inhalers into, help the trust cut down on its greenhouse gases. 

Specialty Doctor in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine Dr Sam Flowers explains the propellants used in some inhalers, although not harmful to the people who use them, still contain small amounts of environmentally damaging gases when they’re finished.

“The most environmentally friendly way to dispose of inhalers is to return them to a pharmacy for safe disposal,” Dr Flowers says

“It’s important to remember the contents of patients’ inhalers are not harmful to them, but the plastic and metal the inhalers are made of will take hundreds of years to decompose in landfill and this will cause tiny bits of plastic called microplastics to enter our food chain.”

Since late 2022 the recycling bins have received between up to 1,300 inhalers – roughly equivalent to 7.5 tonnes of CO2e. 

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