A major diabetes company has launched a new recycling scheme to go green and help the NHS reach it’s 2030 goal, and there’s a simple way for you to help out.
Roche Diabetes Care, which specialises in producing innovative diabetes technologies, has announced plans to go green where possible. So you may be seeing some changes if you use their insulin pump.
The organisation is piloting several changes, and will wait for customer feedback before deciding to roll out the initiative on a permanent basis.
The first modification will see Roche recycling the material Tyvek, which Roche uses to cover its plastic trays containing its cannula and insulin pump tubing.
The synthetic material can only be recycled at specific centres. To increase the recycling of Tyvek, Roche is supplying pre-paid envelopes, on request, to anyone ordering supplies for their Accu-Chek insulin pump. This will allow you to send off the waste to be recycled.
Another initiative the company has temporarily adopted is supplying cannulas and tubing for insulin pumps separately from now on. The dual packs have been abandoned because once opened the sterility is compromised. If only one item in the pack is required, then the other one is just thrown away, creating more waste.
Feedback from the first 1,500 people about the initiative will determine whether the scheme continues.
The company is also considering a packaging shake up and getting rid of plastic bubble wrap bags, replacing them with corrugated cardboard.
Karen Maxwell, Safety, Health and Environment Officer at Roche Diabetes Centre, said: “We have a responsibility as a manufacturer to do what we can to respect the environment and we take this responsibility seriously.
“We use Tyvek as a seal for sterile products for health and safety reasons, but it can only be recycled by specialist centres. This pilot is about giving people the option to recycle in a very convenient way.
“We are exploring other green initiatives and are also open to ideas, so I would urge people with suggestions to get in touch with their local Roche contact.”
Roche is hoping these small changes will make a large impact on helping reduce the company’s waste, while also helping the NHS to meet 2030 target to become carbon neutral.
