The Recycling Renewal Program is now at all Lower Mainland hospitals and residential care sites, including 22 VCH sites! We would like to thank everyone who participated, including VCH’s Recycling Champions.

About the Recycling Renewal Program

Standardized mixed containers and mixed paper recycling bins have been implemented at VCH sites to help divert recyclables from landfill and incineration.

Each implementation included engagement with site leadership, training of housekeeping staff and recycling champions, placement of the bins, communications about what goes into the bins, and visual audits for monitoring of the program.

In 2016, the average annual waste diversion rate was 35%. By 2020, we hope to achieve a 50% waste diversion rate.

Who are VCH Recycling Champions?

VCH Recycling Champions are front line health care staff in diverse hospital units that volunteer their time to help support recycling in their units. There are currently 103 Recycling Champions at VCH.

VCH Recycling Champions helped to implement the recycling renewal program by:

• Determining what types of recyclables were generated and where on their unit.
• Giving feedback on how many bins they needed and where they should go.
• Helping colleagues understand what is recyclable.
• Keeping an eye out for contamination of the recycling bins and taking action to educate colleagues through posters, education, competitions, etc.

There’s still more to come

The next phase will be about identifying ways to make the recycling program more clinically relevant. So we will be running surveys, interviews and focus groups to identify/assess how the program could be made more relevant and accessible to clinical staff.

We hope you will join us either by contacting us to become a Recycling Champion or participating in our future surveys. Once again, thank you to everyone who helped us in our journey to reduce our collective environmental footprint!