Walking Aids recycle

Hello Rachel - we are not at this stage, but have had some pleasing progress with local recycling centres who are now keen to collect any walking aids/equipment (rather than disposing as waste!). We are working out how to collect items from the various centres. It has taken a long time, but we feel we are heading in the right direction! Would be interested to hear more about the NHS recycle scheme. Thanks

Hi Rachel and Louisa - it wold be good to hear more about the NHS recycling scheme and what they do with the equipment . I work for a charity Belief in Action and we have been collecting equipment from contracts skipping it , some of it with only Minor repairs needed( such as replacing the brakes on outdoor walkers) and sending in lorry loads to an equipment loan store in Romania . This serves a community of underprivileged disabled population of adults and children who cannot get this equipment in any other way . People come from hundreds of miles to access it .
We have been doing this for the last 15 years . We also go out every 6 months to do training and assessments. It would be really good to join up all the good work people are doing to save on costs of transport and logistics.

HI Rachel
you could get in touch with Rumina Onac, GP in York. She is a member of the networks and also on Linkedin. See her blogs about the work she has done in York on returning walking aids.
https://www.thegreeningoflife.com/post/more-crutches-than-you-could-sha…
There is some info on NHS Futures on this and it would be worth posting this request on the AHP network also.
Good luck!
Nuala

Hi Nuala thank you for your comment ...Happy to send you something just wondered what course information on sustainable resource use you are referring to ( might be useful for us too !) . Can send you some articles about the equipment recycling work we do . ..but this is only one aspect of the projects we re involved with. The UK charity we work with is called Belief in Action www.belief-action.co.uk and we partner with a Romanian registered charity called Hope Without Limits.

Thanks Elke, on our foundation courses we usually signpost people to existing work /case studies etc. You can see an outline of our courses here
https://sustainablehealthcare.org.uk/courses/foundation-courses
Nuala

Hi Rachel, I'm doing a project on walking aid recycling at the moment and there is lots of information I'm sure you've seen on Greener NHS website. Shall we have a quick chat? Jacqueline.gordon3@Nhs.net.... Also I think you know Amanda Edwards?

Also there's a presentation about this and hopefully discussion after at the Greener AHP week. Monday 22nd April 13-13:45 please all come along and share your experiences.. It seems like it should be such an easy thing to do but it's become SO complicated in my experience in Sussex ICB.