CVS Group says business-wide efforts led to a 13.9% reduction in its annual medical waste last year.

The company said it also reduced the amount of medical waste that was incinerated by 34.7% during the same period.

Figures were revealed as CVS Group published its 2024 sustainability report – its third since launching a group-wide programme on sustainability in 2020.

Measures

In 2023-24, key measures to reduce, reuse and recycle waste included:

• Enhanced waste segregation and collaboration with local partners, leading to an increase in non-medical waste recycled from 31% to 34.9%.
• Introduction of reusable sharps bins across UK practices, which is expected to save 21,000 single-use bins from incineration annually, reducing CO₂ emissions by 30 tonnes.
• Investigating reusable operating theatre textiles, to decrease waste from single-use items.
• Increasing plastic recycling, working with a waste service supplier to identify additional plastics that can be recycled.
• Appointment of 312 environment champion colleagues to drive waste reduction, waste separation and increased recycling in each practice.
• Colleague engagement and training, with 397 colleagues enrolled in a waste reduction module on the CVS Knowledge Hub training platform.
• Launch of greener products through a “sustainable shop” on Vet Direct, CVS’ retail platform, with a 7% year-on-year growth in sales.
• The introduction of a new supplier code of conduct that includes stringent environmental standards to enhance sustainability within the supply chain.

Future reductions

In the coming year, CVS said it wanted to reduce waste sent to landfill by 10% and increase the amount of non-medical waste recycled to 38%.

Rosie Naylor, CVS Group procurement director and sustainability lead, said: “These achievements reflect our commitment to improve sustainability and waste management.

“While we strive to provide the best possible care to our patients, we recognise our responsibility to minimise the impact our work has on the environment around us.”

The sustainability report is available at the CVS reports website.