The Coalition says reducing the use of single-use plastic (SUP) and waste within Canadian healthcare facilities will ‘reduce plastic waste exposure and impacts on the environment and humans on land and shorelines, animal ingestion of macro plastics, and the ingestion of microplastics by animals and humans. It said: “In addition, this project has many synergies with other Canadian government and health system priorities, such as reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) from our health system, increasing system resilience to supply chain interruptions as was witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is expected during more extreme weather events due to climate change, and promoting circular economy approaches to resolve resource and waste issues.”
The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change,
added: “Small changes can have big impacts, and improving how plastics are made, used, and managed, in every sector of our economy is paramount to reduce plastic waste and pollution. Benefiting from over CAD 330,000 in funding over three years, the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care will be able to assess procurement practices in the medical sector, and support this industry in adopting sustainable practices. The Government of Canada also provided funding to the Coalition for their assessment of a circular economy model for hospital-generated personal protective equipment and medical single-use plastic waste.”
Starting with a pilot at Hamilton Health Sciences that builds on its existing sustainable procurement initiatives, the project will see the development of resources that will lead to altered procurement practices, on-site SUP reduction, and ‘more educated and engaged staff. “Through our sustainable procurement initiatives, we have already started to see the benefits of working with vendors who are committed to helping our hospital reduce our GHG emissions and waste,” explained Kelly Campbell, Vice-President, Corporate Services and Capital Development.
McMaster University will be involved through training of postgraduate medical residents on using Quality Improvement (QI) projects to address SUP through McMaster University’s Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) Programme. Dr. Myles Sergeant, Sustainable Healthcare Lead for the PGME program (pictured), is also the Executive Director of the Coalition. He will lead this step through the sustainable healthcare committee, and will supervise QI projects focusing on sustainable procurement and SUP reduction. He said: “This is a great opportunity to train new doctors to incorporate sustainability thinking into their work, and for us to learn from their experiences.”
The HHS pilot will be followed by a national campaign to engage hospitals across Canada to implement similar initiatives and reduce more healthcare-generated plastic waste. These participating facilities will have access to resources developed through the pilot, such as case studies, education, and awareness tools for the healthcare workforce, protocols for undertaking sustainable procurement initiatives, and infographics.