Hospitals are now joining in on the fun of plastic slashing to save the world! The National Health Service (NHS) – a government-funded medical and health care service for everyone in the UK – has launched a sizable drive to cut single-use plastic from its hospitals across England in 2020. The initiative will reduce waste and help the environment in the process.
The goal is to halve their single-use plastic consumption figure to 98 million throw away items. This past year (2019), that figure was 194 million single-use plastic items purchased and discarded. This number broken down consisted of 2 million stirrers, 15 million straws, 16 million plastic cutlery pieces, and 163 million plastic cups.
Even on-site retailers like M&S, Boots, and WHSmith are required to sign up and pledge. By doing so, they will rid their stores of stirrers and straws completely as of April 2020, then phase out cutlery, plates, and cups over the following year. The customers, patients, and staff will be equally affected by the move, as well as on-ward catering.
Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, said:
It’s right that the NHS and our suppliers should join the national campaign to turn the tide on plastic waste. Doing so will be good for our environment, for patients and for taxpayers who fund our NHS.
The NHS hopes all hospitals will back this campaign and has even written to them urging compliance.
So far, the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has eliminated half a million single-use plastic items already from its canteens. At the same time, the Yorkshire Ambulance Service has been able to reduce plastic waste by about 4 tons from staff canteens every year.
Ruth May, England chief nursing officer, said:
Support from local NHS organizations to sign the pledge and cut use of catering plastics will need all NHS staff to take action in their own areas and encourage their employers to go further faster.
Helen Bird, of sustainability charity Wrap (the Waste and Resources Action Programme), added:
It’s positive to see the NHS taking action to turn the tide on plastic waste, removing plastic items where they do not make sense for the environment, and looking for alternatives to materials that are not recyclable, like expanded polystyrene cups. It sends a strong message to the public and suppliers to the NHS; our throwaway culture will become a thing of the past.
One day very soon we will look back on all of this news about single-use plastic and wonder why we ever became a throwaway culture in the first place.
