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Meet our youngest Sustainability Committee member-
Elise Kerle. Elise is an occupational therapist at RNS and
her primary role is in acute care. She decided to join the
Sustainability Committee as she is committed to building
a sustainable environment and is driven by her passion
for change.
What she finds most exhilarating is the enormous opportunities at RNSH waiting to
be explored that will ultimately contribute to a healthier and more resilient
community – a dream of all healthcare workers! In her spare time, she loves going
to the theatre and live music concerts.
THE WORLD OF WASTE!
Waste and how we deal with it at RNS is an area that we could certainly improve. According
to the ARUP report, commissioned by the District to baseline our health service, waste is a
major contributor to our carbon footprint. So, what are we doing and what can we do to
improve?
Our ICT Team have an e-Waste service. Anytime, you have e-Waste that needs
collecting, call the ICT helpdesk and log a job. They will come and collect,
destroy all hardrives for cyber security reasons and send our e-Waste to a
registered waste provider to manage. So, please remember don’t just leave e-
Waste hanging around, make sure you access our secure e-Waste service.
In our clinical areas please orientate yourselves to what constitutes clinical
waste. Most items that you would assume are clinical waste should actually be
directed to general waste. Used gloves and other PPE are not clinical waste,
neither are adult and paediatric pads. Dressings with a small amount of bodily
fluids are also general waste. It can be quite confusing. If you are unsure ask
your Nurse Unit Manager and segregate wisely!
A new initiative by our food services team and our retailer Zouki is improving
the separation of organic waste (food scraps) from the general waste. Thanks
to our food services teams at RNS, separating food waste from patient's meal
trays will commence with the introduction of a dedicated organic waste
stream. Zouki will also be introducing waste segregation in their kitchens. Our
indicator of success will be the number of food waste bins doubling and then
tripling over time. Good luck team!
HAVE YOUR SAY If you have a sustainability story or idea to share, feel free to write to us at NSLHD-PlanetaryHealth@health.nsw.gov.au
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