The innovative pilot program Keep Me in the Loop®, run in partnership with Tasmanian company GreenMed®, sees clean hospital sterilisation wrap, which is traditionally single-use, recycled and returned to the health sector in the form of new, remanufactured products.

Calvary’s Lenah Valley and St John’s Hospitals commenced the pilot in May, with specialised collection stations placed in the operating theatres. Once the material is collected, it will be processed and remanufactured locally when a state-of-the-art facility is completed in Brighton, Tasmania in early 2024.

Tray corner protectors, designed to elevate and stabilise surgical kits, will be the first product GreenMed will produce using the hospital sterilisation wrap. Calvary Lenah Valley is already using GreenMed’s® current ‘GreenGuard’ tray corner protectors.

Calvary’s Hobart Director of Mission, Tony Brennan, congratulated the dedicated Calvary green champions who advocated for the project four years ago and worked hard to make it a reality.

“Calvary is committed to responsibly managing our precious resources now and into the future, and I’m so proud this initiative has already seen a significant reduction in the volume of landfill waste being generated by Calvary’s hospitals in Tasmania,” Mr Brennan said.

“The rollout has so far been a huge success, and Calvary is hopeful of expanding this pilot across our other services in Tasmania.”

GreenMed® Director, Mat Usher, said the processing of clean hospital sterilisation wrap required little water use, released no chemicals or toxins and was only responsible for a small transportation footprint during collection and delivery.

“Our Keep Me in the Loop® program aims to create products that can be recollected and re-recycled multiple times, ensuring we achieve the greatest bang for our environmental buck in hospital plastic use,” Mr Usher said.

“Hospitals that sign up to our program can expect complete accountability and reportability for where their waste ends up, contributing to a truly circular economy for Australia’s healthcare waste.”

The pilot will run for six months, with Calvary’s Launceston hospitals ready to begin a pilot later this year.