I was so impressed hearing about the changes that Murray Vets in Western Australia are taking to become more sustainable, I just had to give them a shout out and share their sustainability journey so far!
“The more people we can inspire to see that it is possible to make even just one small change within their workplace or home that will have such an effect towards making bigger positive changes collectively”
Pip Wallace, Practice Manager, Murray Vets
Single use plastic is currently an unavoidable and essential waste by product of providing any medical service. Single use plastic has allowed the minimization of cross contamination between patients and decreased patient infection rates.
At Murray Vets we are really conscious of our waste production and take many steps to minimise our waste but like anything there is always room for improvement. We took the Plastic Free July challenge this year as a chance to assess what we do in the clinic to be as sustainable as possible and find areas for improvement rather than just focusing on what we currently can’t change.
This is what we currently do:
- all our stable bedding and animal manure is composted and used on our gardens and paddocks
- we use good quality surgical instruments that can be re-sterilised and re-used
- where practical we use re sterilisable drapes
- the cardboard boxes and foam that our drugs arrive in are returned to our suppliers to be re used
- medications are only ever dispensed in paper bags or boxes
- chaff bags are re used as bin liners eliminating the need for single use bin liners
- any bubble wrap that arrives at the clinic is kept and reused for outgoing packages
- we purchase toilet paper wrapped in paper not plastic
- we buy handwash, washing up liquid, washing powder, disinfectants and obstetrical lube in bulk packaging and decant into smaller containers
- two years ago we bought all our team keep cups for Christmas to make sure they could stay caffeinated and plastic free on the road
- we divert to recycling and RED cycle any plastics that we are able to
- we purchase electrical equipment that is rechargeable
- the towels we use in hospital are all recycled from second hand stores
- our hospital was converted to digital patient charts to eliminate paper records in the clinic
- 75% of all our accounts are sent by email and all of our reminders and client communications are sent by email or text reducing our paper usage
- we installed solar panels on the clinic and decreased our reliance on mains power by 50%
What we are going to do better:
- we have recently discovered that all our fluid bags and intravenous drip sets are recyclable through a special PVC recycling programme. Unfortunately it appears that this is currently only available in large human hospitals but we are going to find a way to be part of it and divert our fluid bags from landfill
- place more recycling bins throughout the clinic to reduce the temptation to put things in the general waste
- continually search for more sustainable products to use in the hospital without reducing the level of patient care
- gradually increase the number of stables with permanently padded flooring to reduce the amount of wood shavings needed for bedding
- try to find a way to recycle/return/re use the bags that the horses fed chaff and grain come in
- participate again in Plastic Free July next year to make sure that we continue to reassess ourselves and continue to strive to improve our waste management and sustainability.
Murray Vet Services http://murrayvets.com.au