Recycling Champion: Shirley Imperial
Health authority: Fraser Health
Facility: Surrey Memorial Hospital
Position: Pharmacist
Interview date: July 4, 2017
Shirley is a Recycling Champion in Pharmacy at Surrey Memorial Hospital. We chatted about her recent endeavour to improve recycling in her work place.
Q. What initiated your involvement as a Recycling Champion?
“I made a New Year’s resolution that I wanted to live a more environmentally sustainable life. I made changes at home to ensure proper recycling would take place, but noticed that when I would come to work, there were things that could use some improvement. I wanted to ensure that I was as eco-friendly as I could be in all aspects of my life (both at work and at home), so I contacted the Green+Leaders (in my department) to see what else I could do.”
Q. What has been your biggest challenge yet?
“Educating others on proper recycling and what items go in which container. I believe that one of the biggest reasons that people don’t recycle is that they don’t know where to put things. I know I had the same problem in the past. Once I educated myself, it made the whole recycling process a lot easier than I had originally thought.”
Q. How is recycling related to health care?
“I think that recycling and health care go hand in hand. As health-care providers, it is our duty to ensure that patients receive the best quality of care possible, and providing a clean and sustainable environment should be a part of that care.”
Q. What are your future goals as a Recycling Champion?
“I hope to be able to recruit as many people as possible to try to implement small changes in their lives to be a little more green. Every little effort counts and, hopefully, small changes will lead to larger changes later on.”
