Single-use plastic

Single use plastics

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  1. A project for you to join – send us your plastic medication vial caps so they can be turned into new product
  2. Information about Victoria’s Single use plastic ban. 
    Background information: 
    - six single use plastic items will be banned from 1st February, 2023. The Victorian public service phase out of these items commenced February 2022.
    - The items are single use plastic drinking straws, cutlery, plates, drink stirrers, expanded polystyrene food and drink containers and cotton bud sticks.
    - Healthcare is included in the ban with the exemption of where no alternatives are available. The drinking straws remain available for people who need them due to a disability or for medical reasons. Proof of medical need or disability is not required. Cotton bud sticks will still be required in some settings for testing carried out for scientific, medical, forensic or law enforcement purposes.
  3. Single-use plastics ban - Exemption guidance [PDF]
  4. Single-use plastics ban - fact sheet [PDF]
  5. What does the Single-use plastic ban mean for Victorian healthcare [PowerPoint].
    Presentation from the 2022 ANMF (Vic Branch) Health and Environmental Sustainability Conference, used with permission, Amanda Elliott, DELWP. 
  6. ANMF (Vic Branch) submission into the single use plastic ban, contains member feedback. 
  7. Member presentation on Reducing plastic in Healthcare – Our compostable journey [PowerPoint] from the 2022 ANMF (Vic Branch) Health and Environmental Sustainability Conference, used with permission, Stephanie Hughes, SWHC. 
  8. CAHA resources.
  9. Austin Health is the second Australian health service to join an innovative pilot project aiming to reduce single-use plastics from healthcare going into landfill and the ocean, in a bid to tackle the sector’s significant contribution to plastic waste
  10. This article contains a chart showing “where should my plastic go” in response to the confusing array of new materials in the market.  
  11. Plastic free July ideas.

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