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Portland, Oregon
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I have always recycled at home, but felt like more could be done
at the workplace. I am an RN at St Vincent Medical Center in the perinatal department, the largest department in the facility.
I realized that we weren't doing enough to support recycling in our department and decided to find out more about what we could and could not recycle. I discovered that within the Providence Portland Service Area has a sustainability coordinator who is committed to educating people about the vast amount of waste we can recycle.
I learned that, at St Vincent's, we have an amazing ability to recycle tremendous amounts of waste, much more than in the household...anything plastic with the exception of biohazardous
waste can be recycled; this includes the plastic film that covers
so many of our medical supplies. I also learned that our facility
alone throws out 5.5 TONS of garbage per day; that can be
significantly decreased if people recycle. I did a walk-through
of my unit with the sustainability coordinator and someone
from Metro who focuses on "on the job" recycling.
These two then came to staff meetings to educate our staff
on what can and cannot be recycled, and to encourage our staff members to take advantage of this opportunity. I received feedback from numerous co-workers who wanted to be involved in ensuring
that our unit does a better job of recycling.
We started a “Green Team” on our unit and are sending a representative to the hospital-wide “Green Team” to get the latest information on recycling.
Since first starting on this project, I have helped educate all of
the staff about recycling; as a result, waste has decreased significantly. Some are saying that waste is 1/2 what it used to be. At the end
of the year, our department manager sent out a "year in review"
and recycling was highlighted as an improvement to our department.
I was very excited! I still get my gloves on and "dumpster dive" for recycleables as there are still some co-workers who throw away recycleables, but, we are making significant progress and the recycle containers are very convenient. This year we will start piloting a
project with recycle containers in patient rooms, encouraging all
of our patients to recycle, as well. We have also learned that
our facility will soon start composting and is working to significantly decrease food waste. My slogan for all of my "Green Team" communications is "Together, we can make a difference!"
I am so pleased that a simple question of "can we recycle more"
has turned into this!
At home, we have green energy through PGE, we are very careful
with energy usage, and have a lot of fluorescent lights. Our next
step is getting a composter. I have also written letters to Ted Kulongoski about developing a website on the government pages
that has a list of available grants/tax advantages for environmentally friendly companies or homes. I wrote to Kroger (owner of Fred Meyer) about increasing their environmental friendly practices, and NBC news about a recent business trip I took to Orlando where recycling wasn't available at a hotel/convention center; the focus of this e-mail was encouraging vacation centers to support and promote recycling.
If people are able to have this available, they will bring it back
into their homes if they haven't already done so! I don't know if
any of these letters made a difference, but it makes me feel like
I'm putting my voice out there!
Education is the key and even simple steps can make a difference!!
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