Ramsay Health Care Australia is making a meaningful, positive impact on the environment, preventing more than 9 million single-use plastic items from ending up in landfill over the past seven months.
Ramsay is committed to replacing plastic items - such as cups, cutlery and plates, kidney dishes and anaesthetic trays - with environmentally-friendly alternatives. For example, the health care company is swapping out plastic medication cups for compostable cups made of wood pulp.
Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ramsay set a World Environment Day goal of removing 24 million plastic items from 5 June 2020 to 5 June 2021. This target has been impacted by the global health crisis, which caused supply issues with several of the sustainable product alternatives. The suspension of elective surgery in Australia also meant the number of products used was not as high as initially predicted.
Ramsay Australia CEO, Carmel Monaghan, said: "Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, our teams have remained committed to reducing the use of plastic items across our Australian facilities."
"Our ability to save more than 9 million plastic items from ending up in landfill in just seven months is still a huge achievement by any account."
"It is very pleasing that we have been able to achieve these impressive results considering the unforeseen circumstances which arose in 2020," Ms Monaghan said.
"Congratulations to the procurement team for their ongoing work to help us realise this important environmental goal. We're proud to be people who care for people and the planet."
