Healthcare Quarterly
Recovering Plastics in a Hospital Can Have Environmental, Social and Economic Benefits
Abstract
Plastics are omnipresent in today's healthcare facilities. In Quebec, recyclable plastics (the ones with a 1 to 7 number on it, excluding number 6 or styrofoam) represent 7% of all the waste generated by healthcare institutions – 2,907 tonnes each year (Proulx et al. 2009). The vast majority of these plastics are sent to landfill instead of being recycled due to the lack of suitable recycling systems. In collaboration with three Montreal-based hospitals, Synergie Santé Environnement (SSE) conducted an 18-month pilot project to implement a sustainable plastic recycling system with threefold objectives: reduce landfill costs, obtain royalties for the plastics and assure traceability.
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