CMH’s Green Bench recycling project gives single use plastics a second life

GreenBenchProject.ca
Aug 25
5 min read

Cariboo Memorial Hospital (CMH) GP Anesthetist Dr. Ivan Scrooby, environmental services supervisor Debbie Fadenrecht and the entire hospital staff have teamed up to keep thousands of pounds of personal protective equipment (PPE) out of the local landfill, which is transformed into recycled products such as flower pots, fences, benches and tables.

Dr. Scrooby, a father of four, said he was inspired to start a recycling program at CMH in 2023 after seeing the amount of discarded face masks, which are made from woven polypropylene and would take 450 years to break down naturally in the environment, from ending up on the streets and in landfills during the Covid pandemic.

At that time, he also had boxes of sterilized plastic tubing, which had been saved during the pandemic in case of shortages. “Then it all ended, and I didn’t have the heart to throw them away in the garbage.” Dr. Scrooby bought a garden chipper from Canadian Tire with his children and started chipping up the tubing at home and experimenting to see what they could make. “We weren’t very successful, but it was the start of the mask recycling. That’s how it started, really.”

At CMH, Dr. Scrooby began collecting face masks at CMH with the goal of having them made into products such as benches.

While he was working on getting his program up and running at CMH, the provincial government offered funding and support in 2024 with its own PPE Recycling Program.

Much like what Dr. Scrooby was working on, the province-wide PPE Recycling Program focuses on diverting medical PPE waste from landfills in healthcare settings, by recycling single-use materials like masks, gloves, visors and respirators. This province-wide initiative was led by Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), Interior Health (IH) and in partnership with the other B.C. health authorities. It started with a pilot at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital (KBRH) and select other B.C. hospitals in 2021. The program eventually expanded to more sites in the Interior, and across B.C., including at CMH.

Since May 2024, CMH has diverted nearly ten thousand pounds (9275lbs) of personal protective equipment out of landfills.

There are now four IH facilities with PPE Recycling. This program is in alignment with IH’s Climate Change and Sustainability Roadmap—the organization’s five-year plan to embed sustainability action across its operations. This project supports the reduction of physical waste from IH facilities and is in alignment with the province’s CleanBC Plan to reduce waste and increase recycling practices across public sector organizations.

When Debbie Fadenrecht learned of the program, she knew exactly who to contact at CMH.

“My first call was to Ivan,” said Debbie, acknowledging the funding and knowing that it could contribute to Dr. Scrooby’s original initiative.

“I was totally on board. I was like ‘tell me what you need, and I’ll help. You need bags, you need bins, you need people to pick it up?’”

Dr. Scrooby agreed, and the project was officially renamed The Green Bench Project. He credits the efforts of the environmental services staff with the program’s success.

“Debbie and her team are the heart of the program.”

Hospital staff are encouraged to place face masks and all other forms of PPE such as hair nets, visors, disposable gloves and booties in the recycling bins set up throughout the hospital.

Environmental Services staff check the bins daily and pick them up as needed. Currently, two pallet bins of PPE weighing 140 pounds each are shipped out each week for recycling from CMH. Debbie said the initiative spearheaded by Dr. Scrooby has resulted in a significant drop in waste of single-use plastics.

From there, the material is then sent to Port Coquitlam to Vitacore Industries where it is shredded and reformed into pellets and 2x2 construction materials. Vitacore Industries is a Canadian PPE manufacturing and distribution company that also has a recycling program for PPE.

“This truly does excite me,” said Debbie. “It’s a planet-saver. We are all trying to make a new footprint in the world. We’re making a difference”

NEXT STEPS

“Ideally, we want to use this material to build structures around the new hospital,” said Dr. Scrooby, noting he has refined the program by providing more bins of various sizes, approved by infection control, to make it easier for staff to recycle.

“There’s all these little things we have discovered as we went along,” he said. “You have to create an environment that is conducive to people not having to make a huge effort to recycle in order for it to work. You want to make an easy and positive experience.”

The next phase of the project will include getting samples of the end product and examining the design, noting he anticipates people will feel more invested in the project as they see end products from their efforts. He also wants to team up with local high school students to make it a community effort by having them build the benches.

A website for The Green Bench Project has been developed for educational purposes at www.greenbenchproject.ca.

Dr. Scrooby said anesthetists as a whole tend to have a great desire to recycle because they use so much single-use plastic that gets thrown away, such as IV tubing. He hopes those products will also one day be recycled.

“There’s so much opportunity in hospitals to have clean plastic that you recycle which will dramatically reduce the costs of recycling. But, for now, we just want to make this one project successful.”, Debbie agrees.

“It’s exciting to see the end result, to see what we’re doing and show it to people. We didn’t take any trees. It’s a simple project, it’s simple, it’s easy, it’s making a difference and that’s the whole idea.”

For more details on the PPE recycling program: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Recycling Program.

To learn more about Interior Health’s Climate Change and Sustainability Roadmap 2023-2028, visit our website.

Background: About the Interior Health Climate Change and Sustainability Roadmap

The Climate Change and Sustainability Roadmap 2023-2028 is a strategic document that provides a cohesive strategy to help guide Interior Health (IH) towards a more sustainable future as an organization, health-care provider and key community member. The Roadmap empowers IH staff to proactively respond to the challenges of climate change, and to promote the pillars of sustainability across the organization and the communities IH serves.

The first implementation interval of the Roadmap is occurring from 2023 to 2028 and is focused on building on existing momentum, organizing for change, and achieving progress across the 20 key actions. At the end of the five-year interval, the actions will be reviewed and refreshed. This will encourage an environment of continual learning and improvement, and will support progress.

The Roadmap is also supporting IH in meeting its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions targets. As a public sector organization, IH contributes to B.C.’s legislated targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from building sources by 50 per cent, and emissions from fleet by 40% below 2010 levels by 2030. IH has been carbon neutral since 2010, as outlined in the 2024 public sector organization (PSO) Climate Change Accountability Report.

Latest News: Aug 1, 2025 News article in The Williams Lake Tribune Link to article - https://www.wltribune.com/local-news/williams-lake-hospitals-ppe-recycling-unmasks-potential-8172051