West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust makes recycling plea for hospital equipment that is thrown away or not returned

West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (WSFT) is issuing a plea focusing on rescuing hospital items as part of the Recycle Now campaign’s 21st annual recycling week.

Every year, millions of pounds worth of NHS community equipment, such as crutches and walking aids, are misplaced, not returned or thrown away.

Between October 2023 and August 2024 in Suffolk, almost 3,300 pieces of equipment were not returned.

Returning, recycling and reusing this equipment helps the NHS save money, and reduces the environmental impact of providing the service.

Laura Rawlings, business development manager for WSFT, said: “We know that residents across the county are generously wanting to support their NHS services and one easy way to do this is to ensure that any unused community equipment that you may have around the house can be returned to us.

“We’re coming up to Christmas preparation time, so this is a good opportunity to clean out your spare rooms, sheds and conservatories, where a lot of the equipment is likely to be stored and forgotten about.

“There’s no better time to have a sort out and help the NHS!”

Increasing the amount of equipment that is returned means that it can be given out to others and continue helping patients during their recovery.

Once returned, these items undergo thorough cleaning and safety inspections, which mean these pieces of equipment can be used several times over.

There are also numerous drop-off points for this equipment across Suffolk, with work underway to expand the number of locations to make it as easy as possible to drop equipment off.

The current drop-off locations include West Suffolk Disability Resource Centre (IP32 7BX), West Suffolk Hospital (IP33 2QZ), Ipswich Hospital, (IP4 5PD), Medequip Depot, (IP3 9RR), Leiston Wellbeing Hub (IP16 4HE) and Emmaus (IP1 4JY).

Ms Rawlings said: “The collections are completely free and all you need to do is pick up the phone and let us know you have some NHS community equipment.”

This month, the trust’s waste management team also won two silver trophies in the Awards for Excellence in Waste Management for the NHS in England with their project to reduce clinical waste.

They won in the ‘best reduction in clinical waste’ and ‘best reduction in carbon emissions’ categories.

Joss Ball, energy and waste manager, said: “It’s incredibly important that we reduce our carbon emissions and making small improvements in the way in which we get rid of our waste is a great way of achieving this, whether in the workplace or at home.

“We look forward to finding new ways to further reduce our carbon footprint, to help the NHS become a net zero organisation by 2040.”