Sustainability in dentistry: Waste and recycling 101

This article was first published in the ADA's News Bulletin, June 2022

There is a whole range of simple, practical and easy to implement measures that practice owners and staff can take to maximise ‘eco’ credentials. Here, we look at how to deal with waste and recycling in the office space, and in the staff room, thanks to this guide put together by ADA South Australia’s Environmental & Sustainability Committee.
 

The office space

The environment is currently receiving more attention than ever before, with pressure being put upon nations to become carbon neutral, or commit to initiatives to save the planet such as using renewable energy, or reducing waste to landfill. The more we can do as individuals, as well as in our workplaces, the more we can help.

This article looks at starting simply, with the basics, discussing recycling in the reception/office space of a dental practice and making suggestions for implementation.
 

Recycling in the reception/office space

Most, if not all of us, by now are used to recycling in our homes, and probably do it routinely, but how many of us do the same at work? There are limitations in the health sector, but each dental practice can play a part, as most practices have access to the three Council bins – waste, recycling and green waste. A quick look at your local council’s website will tell you exactly what you can put in each bin.

In 2019, a series of articles in the British Dental Journal, with one by Duane et al named Environmental Sustainability and Waste Within the Dental Practice (Duane, B et al: BDJ 2019:226;611-618) makes interesting reading.

The more senior members of the profession can probably remember the promise that offices would be paper free once they were computerised, but we would all agree this is mostly not the case. We still seem to generate a lot of paper, which can later be recycled, but before it is put in the recycle bin, take care to remove any personal patient identifying information, or shred it.

Our simple suggestions are:

- Have a small, labelled bin for paper recycling in the office to make it more convenient; when full, take it to the yellow bin which is probably located outside the building;

- When printing, consider printing double-sided, or waste single-sided pages can be turned upside down and printed on the other side, for office use only;

- Consider using A5 paper instead of A4; ask for the A4 paper to be cut in half and there’s the A5 – much cheaper than buying packaged A5. Waste/error A5 paper is easier to reuse as note paper;

- Recycle printer cartridges at stationery stores (e.g. Officeworks);

- Use refilled recycled ink cartridges and recycled printing paper;

- Check the soft plastic wrap cover on the dental magazines that arrive at the practice. They may be recyclable via REDcycle (e.g. the ADA News Bulletin), Bite magazine cover is Ecopure (degradable but not compostable) and Australian Dentist is Biowrap (appears to be compostable);

- Electronic waste such as old printers, can be taken to collecting points (such as some Bunnings stores) or e-waste stations. Since September 2013, e-waste has been banned from direct landfill disposal across all of South Australia under the under the Environment Protection (Waste to Resources) Policy 2010;

- e-waste includes fluorescent light bulbs and batteries (better still use rechargeable batteries);

-  Email receipts instead of printing; and

- Use rechargeable batteries.

Yes, it might mean a bit of extra effort, but think of the planet.
 

The staff room

In the staff/lunch room, the waste generated is somewhat like home waste. We are going to look at what the plastic codes that identify what the polymer type of a given plastic is, and therefore what can be recycled, and what biodegradable and compostable really mean.

If you are not recycling here in the staff room, and want to start, why not conduct an audit of what is placed in the rubbish bin? Are those individual size tins of tuna going into the waste stream, or are they being placed in the recycling bin? What about the takeaway containers? Banana skins and apple cores? Takeaway coffee cups?

Our simple suggestions are:

- Provide smaller labelled bins for recycling (e.g. tins and containers can easily be rinsed and separated from general waste), similarly for green/organic waste. Some councils offer a free kitchen tidy bin with free liners for food scraps, which then goes into the green waste bin;

- Identify hard plastic types (see opposite) and recycle those types that can be; and

- Collect soft plastics and recycle via supermarket collection point such as REDcycle or YCA.

Everyone has their own reusable coffee cup which is filled at the local café instead of takeaway containers. We could all start by doing the same as what we do at home and commit to recycling glass, metal, paper and plastics at work. But first we need to identify what type of plastic we have as council recycling bins do not process some types of plastic, e.g. codes 4, 6 (soft plastics), and 7. *

Some supermarkets offer plastic recycling for soft plastics (code 6), e.g. Coles and Woolworths use REDcycle, while Foodland uses YCA recycling. YCA recycling also processes many of the plastic codes not recycled by council bins.They turn pre-sorted, clean plastic recyclables into high-quality granules/flakes and supply to the manufacturers for moulding into plastic products again. Plastics take more than 450 years to biodegrade, so make sure you identify if the plastic can be recycled first, then put your plastics waste to recycling at the end of its use!
 

* The plastic codes

These identify the polymer type of the plastic we want to recycle by a name embossed somewhere on the product, or by a number in the triangular arrow graphic, as different polymers are processed differently. This graphic identifies the type of plastic, it does not automatically mean it’s recyclable!

The most common ones are:

1 Polyethylene terephthalate (PETE or PET)
Common uses: water bottles, soft drink bottles, meat trays, plastic jars, carpets, clothing material, fiberfill material.

2 High-density polyethylene (HDPE)
Common uses: milk/juice bottles, wheelie bins, drums, pipes, detergent containers, toys.

3 Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
Common uses: fake leathers, cable covers, tape, pipes, vinyl, heat-shrinking tubes.

4 Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
Common uses: plastic film, lids, irrigation pipes, sauces bottles, pipes, sheets.

5 Polypropylene (PP)
Common uses: toys, buckets, plant pots, yogurt/ice-cream container, disposable containers, pallets, clothes hangers.

6 Polystyrene or styrofoam (PS)
Common uses: CD cases, packing foam, electric housings, soft packaging, clothes hangers.

7 Miscellaneous plastics (Other)
Other plastics including polycarbonate, polylactide, acrylic, acrylonitrile butadiene, styrene, fiberglass, nylon, and many more.