Much like the inner torment Solzhenitsyn must have faced when trying to eke out 24 hours of Ivan Denisovich into 94 pages, I find myself wincing at the thought of squeezing two weeks of eco-progress into just 2172 characters (or so I am constantly reminded by this website).
Forget ‘taco Tuesdays’, or ’manic Mondays’; this has been a ’full-on fortnight’.
Our amazing staff continue to ride roughshod across the world of over-packaged goods, as we collect and recycle all our cardboard, paper and plastic (yuck). Dispenser Delia hasn't bought any new plastic bags for large items since the start of our project and patients have been hugely supportive of returning them for re-use. We now use standard-issue mugs/cups for thirsty patients rather than disposable plastic ones, and we are officially a Refill location, in fact the only one in the village. Look us up on the app! We welcome anyone (patients and passers-by) who wishes to refill their water bottle with Yorkshire’s finest au tap. The shiny sticker has arrived!
Our plight to save energy forges on, as we try to turn off PC monitors and lights, reduce medicines wastage through collaboration with our local Pharmacy, and encourage patients to buy over-the-counter where possible, in line with all our GP colleagues across York. We are also doing special reviews for patients who have more than 10 medicines on their Repeat list.
We are also continuing to harangue manufacturers like Actavis (they make Bisoprolol, a common heart medication) and Reckitt-Benckiser (they make Gaviscon and Nurofen) for their unnecessary plastic wrappings, and Elastoplast, who have assured us they will be free of single-use plastic by 2025, but is that really good enough? Why can’t those tiny waxy paper strips you peel off the back of a plaster be recycled? If you feel strongly about this, please write to them. We can change things. Voices have power! Even the tiniest majority of opinions* can yield powerful results.
*All opinions/votes alluded to in this blog are fictitious and any resemblance to real decisions, both previously or current (and unfathomably prolonged or as yet without firm outcome), is purely coincidental.
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