How creative thinking makes your practice more environmentally sustainable

At our practice we take a holistic approach to sustainability, embedding it into the whole culture of the practice. As members of BDA Good Practice, we are committed to continuous improvement, and there are three main pillars that we focus on. These are reducing waste, cutting energy usage, and engaging staff and patients.

The dental product recycling scheme

We wanted to encourage people to divert plastic away from landfill, and to recycle it instead.

Some of the larger high street chemists run recycling schemes where you can recycle all brands of toothbrushes and toothpaste. There is a box for this in our waiting room, with a list of what patients can bring in to be recycled. It is easy for us to do because the box hardly takes up any space, and there is a chemist within walking distance that we can take it all to. Having the recycling box encourages patients and the team to think about what they could do at home, too.

We also recycle all of our old batteries and ink cartridges, which again is easy to do with a labelled box situated on reception and places to drop off locally.

In the past we worked with organisations that help companies recycle typically difficult items.

Addressing challenges in being sustainable in a dental practice

Dentistry is equipment-heavy so implementing these initiatives can be tricky, because we have to balance being environmentally responsible with clinical needs.

We did a full sustainability audit and came up with a long list of ideas, then worked through that and put in place what we were able to do, which does depend on the building you are in. Our building was originally a big house, and we sealed all the windows properly which makes a great difference in winter.

When we need to replace the light bulbs we get LED bulbs, these can be for overhead lights or chair lights. The patient toilet is an accessible toilet, and previously we did not know if the light was on or off, so it used to get left on all day. Now there is a timer light which goes off after a while.

Simple everyday habits make a big difference. We have 20 members of staff and small changes we have made include only filling the kettle for the amount we need to drink and turning lights and power off when we leave rooms.

Engaging dental staff in sustainability

Zoe McCarthy is one of our receptionists and we call her our “eco champion”; together we plan blog and social media posts about environmental issues, fundraising and anything we believe will help our patient community to know. We think our environmental initiatives will continue to grow as people become more interested in the topic.

Sustainability is something the whole team is involved in, and we encourage them to share ideas. In fact, many of the things we have implemented come from ideas in our practice meetings.

One suggestion from the team was reducing single use plastic in staff areas, so we use recycled cups now. When we use dental instruments in pouches that are half plastic and half paper, we now split the pouch before use and recycle it. In a six-surgery practice, that has made a huge reduction in clinical waste.

The wider response to our environmental initiatives

Patient feedback has been overwhelmingly positive because people value the recycling scheme and they have been inspired to do similar things at home.

In the summer we do an annual beach clean where all the staff go to a beach in the local area. It is incredible how much plastic is left there or washes up, and we fill whole sacks with it.

The council provide the litter pickers, gloves and PPE, and local people see us cleaning the beach and ask us where we are from, saying it is amazing that we are doing it. Then all the staff go out for a meal afterwards. We do not just care about teeth, we care about the planet, recycling, and bringing people together; it has got a greater purpose.

Evaluating the environmental impact of our suppliers and materials

In dentistry, you are somewhat limited as to the suppliers you work with, but as time goes on, suppliers are becoming more sustainable. Before, everything was wrapped in plastic, but now a lot is packaged in cardboard so it is all recyclable.

When we did the full audit, we contacted the suppliers we were using to find out what they were doing for the environment. It is important for us to raise our voices and say we are interested in sustainable packaging.

Future plans for the practice

New materials and ways of doing dentistry come in all the time. When making a crown you can now use a scanner which means you do not need to use traditional materials for impressions. There are a lot of processes which are getting smarter like that, and once products have been out for a while they become more cost effective too.