Dean Reynolds – Logan Hospital Green Team member and Waste Management Coordinator
We do a lot of work at Logan Hospital to recycle where we can and since August 2021 our Logan Hospital Green Team has recycled more than 830 hover mats that would normally be sent to landfill.
The hospital uses as many as 50 of these single use mats every week to transfer patients from one bed to another and by recycling them we have diverted more than 900 kilos of landfill.
We send the hover mats to a number of charities including Donations in Kind which have shipped them overseas to developing countries but at the moment 100 per cent are being sent to Ukraine to assist birthing mothers.
We also donated to The Gift Project which uses the mats to transport sick and rescued animals between facilities for treatment and when they are introduced back into the wild after their medical treatment.
Our staff have really jumped on board with our recycling initiatives and for a lot of them it is as simple as putting the mats or cartridges or plastics in a different bin.
Our efforts have also inspired other hospitals to get involved as well – particularly with the mats.
I think our staff really feel good knowing that they are helping others and they also enjoy hearing about the interesting ways discarded waste like printer cartridges are repurposed for road bitumen.
At the moment we are recycling around 40 kgs of printer cartridges every month.
Other waste is repurposed to make children’s playground equipment.
It’s all about education and letting everyone know that we can recycle so many things other than just the obvious items like cardboard. We are recycling ewaste, batteries and PVC and it all makes a difference.
It’s also great to be able to work with these fantastic charities that work so hard to help people in need across the world and of course our much loved wildlife.
We are proud to be doing our bit to care for the environment.
