Heartbeat: Taking action on a plastic world

February 11, 2020

We only have one world, and the overuse of single use plastics – as well as the repercussions of their use on local and global wildlife – has been a huge part of environmental discussions taking place over the last year.

As part of our focus on sustainability and environmental issues, we’re also working with the local authorities on the clean air plan. We also have a Trust-wide initiative called Green Impact which supports colleagues to make sustainable changes to their department and the wider campus. There have been regular changes made across all our facilities to reduce the amount of single-use plastics that are both procured and disposed of.

Between 2013 and 2018, NHS services across England used more than 600 million disposable cups and millions of other disposable cutlery pieces, as well as many other avoidable single-use clinical and non-clinical plastic items. Sandwell and West Birmingham has signed up to the NHS England/NHS Improvement commitment to reduce single-use plastics. The first area to tackle is removing plastic straws and stirrers from across the organisation.

The pledge states the following goals:

• By April 2020, no longer purchase single-use plastic stirrers and straws, except where a person has a specific need, in line with the government consultation.
• By April 2021, no longer purchase single-use plastic cutlery, plates or single-use cups made of expanded polystyrene or oxo-degradable plastics.
• By April 2021, go beyond these commitments in reducing single-use plastic food containers and other plastic cups for beverages – including covers and lids.

Data for various single-use plastic items (i.e. quantities procured over the last year) will be tracked and submitted to measure progress.

Heartbeat will have more information about our environmental endeavours throughout the year.