Wave goodbye to wasteful PPE

Sovereign Housing Association has introduced recycling bins for PPE to make sure that more than 24,000 pieces of single use plastic are stopped from going to landfill every month.

Suitable for gloves, masks and coveralls, the recycling boxes will be located at eight different offices across the south, including in Blandford in Dorset, Newbury in Berkshire and Basingstoke in Hampshire. The organisation anticipates that the bins will be emptied around once every four weeks.

The recycling collection points will allow Sovereign ‘front line’ employees including housing officers, property services teams and safety check operatives to drop off their used PPE, as well as those working to keep office premises clean and ticking over during lockdown.

Susie Griffin, Head of Workplace Management for Sovereign, said: “Sovereign is an organisation working hard on its Environmental Social and Governance credentials. We want to take steps to be as ecologically sound as we can be.

“These recycling bins for PPE will be collected by Terracycle when they are full – they each hold around 3,000 items. Our employees - some of whom have been working throughout the covid-19 lockdown, to keep residents safe in their homes - can drop off sealed bags of kit whenever they are in the area.”

Sovereign is currently looking at the safest way to begin re-entering its residents’ homes for non-essential works and repairs.

Susie added: “We want our residents and employees to feel confident and safe at all times. PPE helps us all to feel confident that we are not spreading the virus, but we also want to make sure that we are looking out for the environment and this recycling scheme helps us to do that.”