Ascension Health Joins Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council
ST. PAUL, Minn., October 14, 2015 /3BL Media/ – The Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Ascension to its Healthcare Facility Advisory Board (HFAB), a role intended to help the council set priorities and steer the agenda towards its mission of inspiring and enabling sustainable, cost-effective recycling solutions for plastic products and materials used in the delivery of healthcare. Specifically, HFAB members will assist the council in identifying high-value needs and opportunities for action, share first-hand perspective and understanding of recycling barriers that exist within their facilities, and provide access to data, information and resources at the hospital level.
“As with any effort focused on solution development, customer input is critical,” states Peylina Chu, Operations Director of HPRC. “As the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S., Ascension is perfectly positioned to provide valuable insights on the kinds of improvements in healthcare sustainability to which HPRC is committed.”
“As part of its Environmental Stewardship Program, Ascension has a focus on waste management and reduction,” says Lois Sechrist, Environmental Sustainability Analyst with Ascension. “Reducing environmental impact, driving down costs and providing benefit to the communities in which our hospitals are located by creating recycling jobs and reducing the size of landfills needed are all important opportunities, and keeping products out of the landfill at the end of their useful life is a high priority.”
HPRC recently published a how-to guide, called HospiCycle, for hospitals seeking to recycle clean, non-infectious plastic products and packaging waste generated in their facilities. Additional initiatives aimed at enabling recycling of healthcare plastics include plastic recycling pilot study programs at select healthcare facilities, feasibility and cost analysis of industry transition from paper to plastic labels, and resin testing of the technical limitation in plastics reprocessing.
About HPRC
HPRC is a private technical coalition of industry peers across healthcare, recycling and waste management industries seeking to improve recyclability of plastic products within healthcare. HPRC is made up of brand leading and globally recognized members including Baxter, BD, Cardinal Health, DuPont, Eastman Chemical Company, Halyard Health, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Ravago Manufacturing Americas and SABIC Innovative Plastics. The council convenes biannually at meetings hosted by an HPRC member that include facility tours to further learning and knowledge sharing opportunities through first-hand demonstration of best practices in sustainable product and packaging design and recycling processes. For more information, visit www.hprc.org.
About Ascension
As the largest nonprofit health system in the United States and the world’s largest Catholic health system, Ascension is committed to delivering person-centered care to all with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable. In FY2015 Ascension provided nearly $2 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs.
Approximately 150,000 associates and 35,000 aligned providers serve in 1,900 sites of care – including 129 hospitals and more than 30 senior care facilities – in 24 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to healthcare delivery, Ascension subsidiaries provide a variety of services and solutions including physician practice management, venture capital investing, treasury management, biomedical engineering, clinical care management, information services, risk management and contracting through Ascension’s own group purchasing organization.
