Tasks for old masks
Bid to recycle used PPE
Used face masks could be turned into new equipment for the NHS – including prosthetic fingers.
A major project is under way to see how the six billion items of PPE used by the NHS every year could be recycled.
And experts believe they could be used to create new products like operating theatre clogs, plastic bed pans, medical scrubs and even prosthetic finger joints.
Globus Group, which has a major PPE- producing plant in Scotland, is behind the plan, which is being tested with an NHS trust in London.
They hope to roll the plans out to the rest of the country if successful.
The pilot scheme, with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, will run for 18 months to explore how to collect used single-use face masks at five sites.
It will then look at the potential for the masks to be processed and the materials recycled into new NHS products.
Haraldur Agustsson, CEO of Globus Group, which runs the Alpha Solway PPE factory in Annan, Dumfriesshire, said: “As a longstanding and trusted manufacturing partner to the NHS, we’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder with colleagues to deliver the sustainable, net-zero future we all want to see.
“Sustainability, environmentally green materials and recycling projects to deliver a circular economy approach sit at the heart of Globus’s future strategy.”
An Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust spokesman said: “With increased PPE usage becoming the new normal in hospital settings, managing waste is a problem that isn’t going away.
“It’s more important than ever that across healthcare we’re doing everything we can to reduce our environmental impact.”