Every day, hospitals across B.C. rely on personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep staff and patients safe. But what happens to all those masks, gowns, and gloves after they're used?
Traditionally, they've ended up in landfills—but thanks to PHSA's Procurement team, that’s changing. They've recently launched a PPE recycling program enabling hospitals to recycle used PPE into long-lasting, sustainable materials. Recycled polypropylene from PPE is repurposed into Trex® decking, artificial landscaping rocks, and even construction materials like piping and concrete filler—all within North America, eliminating the need to ship waste overseas.
"This program is expected to recycle over 60,000 kilograms of PPE each year," says Marianne Dawson, sustainability advisor, PHSA Procurement.
"By using recycled polypropylene instead of producing new material, we also save a significant amount of energy—about 1,085,712 kilowatt hours. That’s enough to power 40 homes for a year and reduce carbon emissions equivalent to removing 30 cars from the road."
This program is the first of its kind in Canada in both scope and scale, as it operates province-wide and can accept a significant volume of products. The initiative began as a pilot project in 2021 at BC Children's Hospital and BC Women's Hospital + Health Centre (C&W), St. Paul's Hospital and Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital. Following its success, it expanded provincially in 2024 to 16 acute care hospitals, with even more sites set to join in 2025.
"Rolling out a provincial program requires new infrastructure, educational resources, communication plans, and strong staff engagement. It's a significant undertaking, and flexibility and patience were key in keeping everyone motivated," says Marianne.
At C&W, the program has been embraced enthusiastically, with staff appreciating the opportunity to recycle commonly discarded items. Dylan Hallarn, contract manager, Environmental Services, Inter-Campus Operations, played a key role in its rollout and has seen firsthand the impact:
"The PPE recycling program has been phenomenal for us at C&W. It is great to have a recycling option for very commonly disposed of items within our facility which would have otherwise ended up in our regular garbage stream."
"The response around the campus has been fantastic, and the distinct branded receptacles have helped us achieve virtually no contamination of non-accepted items into this recycling stream. I have been jokingly measuring the weight of what we've recycled by the weight of grizzly bears so that it is a fun visualization. From our hospital alone, we have recycled the equivalent weight of around 10 grizzlies' worth of PPE this year!"
Through the leadership and support of our Procurement team, B.C. hospitals are setting a new standard in sustainability—one recycled mask at a time.
