Original story posted on the POD (internal site) by Dylan Hallarn, Contract Manager, Environmental Services (EVS), and Stephanie Harding, Clinical Nurse Instructor at Provincial Health Services Authority.
BC Children’s Hospital Procedures and Surgical Services and Inter-Campus Operations teams recently collaborated on a planetary health initiative to recycle blue polypropylene wrap.
Blue wrap is used as a sterile barrier for instrumentation used in the operating room. Blue wrap is a single-use item and previously, was thrown away immediately after use. The new recycling program – spearheaded by Stephanie Harding, clinical nurse educator and Dylan Hallarn, manager, Environmental Services – provides an opportunity for the teams to collect clean blue wrap and divert it from the landfill to a recycling vendor.
Over the first five weeks of implementation, 214 kg of blue wrap (seen bagged in photo, held by Jonathan Manangan, operations coordinator, Dylan Hallarn and Stephanie Harding) has been recycled thanks to the dedication of Procedures and Surgical Services and Housekeeping teams.
While this is only a small amount of waste generated on campus, every bit adds up and moves us towards our planetary health goal of increasing the amount of waste being diverted out of our landfills,” says Dylan. “At this rate, we expect to recycle over 2,000 kg of blue wrap in a calendar year, equivalent to the weight of over 6 adult grizzly bears.”
The success of the initiative was achieved thanks to the vigilance of the teams, not only in collecting the wraps for recycling, but for providing feedback to optimize the workflow,” says Stephanie.
