Yeovil Hospital’s catering team is striving the way forward to make a fully green eating experience for staff, patients and visitors.
In October 2019 the NHS, highlight a plan to cut single-use plastics from all hospital canteens in a bid to reduce waste and improve hospital environments. Yeovil Hospital’s Deputy Hotel Services Manager, Mathieu Eke jumped at the chance to make an environmentally friendly change to our hospital and turned all catering outlets throughout the hospital green.
Mathieu said: “We have always been a progressive hospital, always going the extra mile to make a positive difference for both patients and staff, so being more sustainable was a must.”
The pandemic proved to be difficult with the plans of going completely eco-friendly. Mathieu continued: “We had to go back to plastic as it was the safest option for staff to take away with them, as we closed the seating areas. Thankfully, we did not have to wait too long until we found an appropriate, sustainable alternative. We started using Vegwear, which looks, feels and acts just like plastic, but it is completely biodegradable and safe for staff to use.”
Having made a significant change in eliminating single-use plastics from the canteen and other retail outlets around the hospital, Yeovil Hospital will saved around 1.2 tons of plastic a year.
Moving forward, Mathieu is always on the lookout to further improve the hospital’s sustainability; recently the hospital has opted for aluminium foil trays to deliver food to patients, which can be recycled and sold on to external organisations and swapped polystyrene boxes to compostable ones.
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This post was written by Communications Team
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