Caring for our living future, one pill cup at a time

Today is global Earth Day, an occasion dedicated to showing support for environmental protection, and we’d like to put a spotlight on Ramsay Health Care. This frontline healthcare provider is committed to the environment with a pledge to remove 50 million plastic items from landfills by the end of 2022 (that's equivalent to over 15,695 6-foot plastic Christmas trees!)

Non-biodegradable single use plastic refuse creates mountains of generational issues in landfills, pouring over and ending up in our oceans. A single plastic cup can take up to 450 years to break down, reduced to microplastics. In the medical field, a large portion of plastic consumables is single use and the options to avoid this have been limited.

Committed to our living future, Ramsay Health Care is replacing plastic waste with products such as Haines^® Medical Australia's Compostable Medical Trays, Paper Medicine and Pill Cups, recyclable bottles and repurposing used but clean items. In addition to benefitting our environment, the repurposed items have been given a new life helping our native animals.

“We have seen what a big difference some small changes can make to the environment and the future of our planet”, says Ramsay Health Care Australia CEO Carmel Monaghan.

The initiative saw a successful start removing 25 million pieces of plastic from the landfills in the first 18 months, that’s a whopping 56,818kg (almost 57 tonnes) of single use plastic waste diverted from landfills and oceans setting the bar. This was achieved by simply eliminating plastic cutlery and water bottles and switching to better options like paper pill cups and compostable medical trays (made from sugarcane waste product, sugarcane bagasse).

This plastic waste would have never fully broken down, piling up into mountains of non-biodegradable refuse. Plastic items used every day in the various Ramsay Health Care sites are removed, introducing recyclable or compostable alternatives.

Fantastic effort from everyone involved!

Carmel Monaghan, Ramsay Health Care Australia CEO

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