We’re all used to recycling at home and now we need to put that into practice at our Trust. The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed recycling bins going into clinical areas.

The green bags we now use are for dry mixed recycling where paper, card, plastic and metal is separated out (see main photo).

A plea: We’d ask colleagues not to put food, teabags or any wet material into these green recycling bags. Estates and Facilities can provide food caddies for this.

We’ve had a number of bags we’ve not been able to recycle because they’ve contained ‘wet’ materials (see attachment - yuck!).

This often results in whole loads being rejected - meaning valuable resources are being landfilled or burnt and the hard work of those who are recycling properly is wasted.

So we’re asking for help to make sure our recycling bins are used correctly, spreading to admin areas or community facilities where we can.

We’d also like to get a number of Green Champions to help spread this message, and lead on other sustainability initiatives to help us spread the word about how we can provide greener and better value services.

Two initial dates have been booked for early September to talk about what this means in practice.

• Wednesday 7 September: 10:30 – 11:30am (Small Meeting Room L&D Centre CRH)
• Thursday 8 September:  11 –midday (Board Room HRI)

If you think you can help and would like to attend or be involved, please contact Don Mackenzie (Energy, Sustainability and Waste Manager) don.mackenzie@cht.nhs.uk 01484 355734.

Don can also supply you with labels for bins in admin areas and food caddies to avoid food waste going in the green recycling bags.