Waste Reduction in Our Sustainability Journey

To understand how to improve our waste management, we began with an audit of the waste we produce and how best to make changes using the waste hierarchy system. We ensured every room had a recycling, general and clinical waste bin, and that all bins had adequate signage to assist correct disposal.

To provide veterinary care, single use plastics are in part unavoidable; but they contain microplastics and are more challenging to dispose, therefore minimising their use is a key factor in the veterinary industry to allow us to continue to provide high quality care whilst being sustainable.

We have been able to reduce single medical plastics by:

• Using sterilisation tins for dental procedures
• Combining surgical items into one pack rather than individual packaging
• Reducing the amount of surgical blue wrap used to package sterilised items

Our nursing team have been instrumental in ensuring recyclable materials used during medical and surgical procedures are kept separate to avoid any contamination, and we procure fully recyclable items where possible eg syringe, needle, autoclave packaging, and fluid bags.

We discuss sustainability with our suppliers to continue to procure items with improved recycling and reduced single-use plastics. We are proud of the changes we have implemented as a team, allowing us to achieve Green Level accreditation with Investors in the Environment last year.