Care home group bans 'unnecessary plastic' from its care homes

A South Coast care home group is cutting down on the amount of single-use plastic in its homes - removing a million items of plastic from the workplace by returning to the use of traditional glass milk bottles, swapping plastic bin liners for reusable cloth sacks, and getting rid of plastic drinking cups.

Colten Care has pledged to drastically reduce plastic waste in twenty-one of its nursing and residential homes in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and Sussex.

The return to glass bottles from a local dairy

'Unnecessary plastic' items used in services such as clinical care, catering, housekeeping and gardening are all being targeted. The project is being supported by residents, families and team members.

Co-founder and director of Colten Care, John Colwell, said: “A year ago we became the first major UK care home provider to begin a group-wide reduction of single-use plastic.

“Since then, we have successfully replaced a huge amount of non-recyclable plastic with environmentally friendly alternatives.

“Now we are going even further and widening our focus from the avoidable use of plastic to try and reduce our overall carbon footprint.”

Introducing reusable cloth sacks for rubbish and waste has eliminated an estimated 365,000 plastic bin bags, whilst a different approach to the storage and dispensing of cleaning liquid has avoided the need for around 19,000 plastic bottles.

Over 480,000 pieces of plastic alone have been eradicated by removing all single-use plastic straws from catering services, replacing them with ones that are fully biodegradable.

The company’s head office uses reusable glass bottles from a local dairy saving 1,500 plastic bottles from going to landfill annually.

Taking radical steps

Awareness about how single use plastics can harm marine life has been raised in recent years due to programmes such as David Attenborough’s Blue Planet and a campaign by Sky News to reduce plastic waste.

Many of Colten Care's homes are near to coastal areas and so this topic is something close to the hearts of their staff.

Mr Colwell said: “We are taking radical steps in our operations so we can make a positive difference. Our residents, team members and suppliers have the same concerns about the environment as anyone else and we want to do right by the communities in which we operate.”

Colten Care launched its ‘Caring without plastic’ campaign launch in spring 2018, for which they estimated 1,161,124 plastic items could be avoided each year through a more environmentally friendly approach.

Head office does its bit

The provider's head office has also taken a range of low-carbon and energy efficiency measures, with solar power growing from 12 per cent of consumption in 2018 to a projected 41 per cent this year.

Overall energy consumption in heating, air conditioning and lighting has been reduced through more time controls, powering down of systems and appliances, and by setting temperature parameters.

Steve Taylor, director of Facilities Management, said: “In 2018, our head office consumed 160,000 kilowatts of energy, equating to 77 tons of CO2 emissions or 17 return flights to Perth, Australia.

“In 2019/20 we expect to have reduced that by 50 tons while still maintaining a comfortable working environment for head office staff.”

click here for more details or to contact Colten Care Ltd