SOME household dental care products can now be disposed responsibly after Scotland’s largest dental group introduced a breakthrough scheme to divert waste from landfill.
Several practices have joined Philips’ Dental Care Recycling Programme, in partnership with TerraCycle, the world leaders in recycling “hard-to-recycle” waste with patients and practices from the Highlands to the Scottish Borders benefiting.
The practice is part of Clyde Munro Dental Group, which is introducing the scheme north of the border to 48 of its 51, (the scheme is currently unable to collect from Orkney), reaching more than 360,000 patients – making it the biggest introduction of the programme in Scotland.
As well as used electric toothbrush heads and covers, it recycles the “non-recyclable”, including plastic floss holders, floss containers, electric flosser nozzles and interdental brushes from all brands.
Fiona Wood, Chief Operating Officer with Clyde Munro, said: “Household dental waste has long been problematic, in that you can’t recycle it in the usual way from home.
“It means plastic inevitably going to landfill, because there wasn’t an alternative option. With Terracycle, through our partnership with Philips, we now have that solution.
“We hope that our patients will embrace this – and help us do everything we can to reduce our footprint.”
TerraCycle programmes allow consumers to send in traditionally non-recyclable products and packaging free of charge, which is then recycled into a format that is used to make new products.
The participating Clyde Munro practices will all offer a collection point within their reception area for patients to drop off dental care products at their next scheduled appointment.
As a further benefit, the practices will receive a charitable donation from TerraCycle depending on the weight of the recycled material, with all that money donated to Clyde Munro’s partner charity, Alzheimer Scotland, or a local charity of each practices’ choice.
Clyde Munro was founded by Jim Hall in 2015 with the acquisition of seven practices. Since then, it has enjoyed rapid growth through acquisition and has plans to continue expanding. It now comprises 51 practices across Scotland, with more than 430,000 patients and 400 staff.
