For Plastic Free July, HCWH Europe is organising a webinar to show how waste audits support a reduction of plastic use in healthcare and present the tools you need to make a change in your own healthcare facility.
Plastics play an important role in providing healthcare, but it is important to recognise the negative health and environmental impacts across their lifecycle: from oil and gas extraction and the use of toxic additives to the large volumes of waste and plastic pollution generated.
The healthcare sector consumes huge quantities of single-use plastic items and is reliant on unsustainable supply chains that are easily disrupted, as demonstrated at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when PPE was scarce in many areas.
Reducing single-use plastic offers many co-benefits for environment and health. In many cases, safe and reusable or reprocessable alternatives to single-use plastics used in healthcare already exist, but it can be challenging to know where to start.
To reduce a problem, you must first measure it. Waste audits are an established method for quantifying waste as well as identifying potential inefficiencies and opportunities for waste prevention and improvements in segregation practices. By analyzing waste, we can understand the types and quantities of plastic used in healthcare facilities. Knowing what is used and thrown away is the first step to reduce plastic use and waste.
This webinar aims to:
- Present the preliminary results of the Towards plastic-free healthcare project and showcase results from the plastic waste audits
- Increase participants’ understanding on the advantages of waste audits
- Inspire other hospitals and healthcare providers to consider waste audits as a way of assessing plastic use in their operations
Click HERE to register for the July 8th event.
