A one-of-its-kind personal protective equipment (PPE) recycling program has arrived in Saskatchewan.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has partnered with B.C.-based PPE manufacturer Vitacore Industries Inc. to run the project along with the Coordinated Accessible National (CAN) Health Network. They started the initiative at Saskatoon City Hospital with the goal of determining if it can be implemented across SHA facilities in the province.
The pilot project started in February 2022 and will end at the end of may, when they will do an assessment to see if they want to move forward with it on a more permanent basis and in other facilities.
As we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers estimate that we throw away around three million face masks globally every minute, surpassing plastic bags as one of the pressing environmental concerns today.
Mikhail Moore president of Vitacore said, “the recycling program was a research project we started early on in the pandemic keeping in mind we are a PPE manufacturing project and we’re using a single use plastic product in a time when we’re trying to limit the use of single use project. So we recognized that there is a huge amount of waste being produced in regards to masks particularly in this pandemic. That’s a massive problem and we wanted to see if we could make a difference.”
He added that the most recent project with SHA (Saskatoon City Hospital) is one of their first large scale projects where they are going to a hospital and looking at this from a healthcare perspective which is really where a large percentage of this waste is coming from.
SHA said they’re looking at potential options to recycle gloves, face shields, gowns as well. Over three months the project has diverted over 54,000 masks from the local landfill.
The project was first launched in British Columbia in February 2021. The recycling program is meant to address sanitary concerns that prevent existing recycling initiatives in Canada from accepting medical PPE.
So far, the whole program has collected 8.8. million masks and respirators and repurposed them into construction materials.
“As one of the largest organizations in Saskatchewan contributing to the increase in PPE usage, we have a responsibility to explore alternative ways of disposing our masks to limit the amount of material ending up in our landfills,” Kerri Cryderman, executive director of environmental services for the SHA, said.
Used masks and respirators are disposed of in designated Vitacore Recycling Bins and taken to the recycling facility where masks are sanitized, sorted and shredded. The shredded pieces are then melted down and turned into pellets that are reused in construction materials, like concrete.
Moore said that Canada being a large country needs recycling strategically located within Canada, a lot of recycling programs will collect and then they’ll travel very large distances or overseas and the problem is the green house gas emissions of doing that may sometimes outweigh the actual benefits themselves. “We took this from not from a recycling for the sake of recycling stance but really recycling for the sake of the environment.”
“Vitacore remains committed not only to providing the highest quality PPE to Canadians, but also to facilitating a sustainable future. We are thrilled to be working with the Saskatchewan Health Authority to bring Vitacore’s Recycling Program to facilities across the province, which will make a significant impact in diverting waste from our landfills and reducing the environmental impact of single-use PPE,” Vitacore president Mikhail Moore said.
Dr. Susan Shaw, SHA chief medical officer and CAN Health Network board member, said the SHA is “excited to have a hand in changing the way we all think about disposing PPE.”
“It is important for us to be aware of our impact on the environment and look for ways in which we can partner with Canadian companies using innovative techniques to reduce this impact,” Shaw said. “As part of the CAN Health Network we are able to share this information nationally, impacting not only SHA but the whole country.”