K-Bro Linen Systems, the province’s service provider for health-care laundry, is transitioning away from using plastic bags to deliver more than two dozen laundry items to medical facilities. This means approximately 5,400 plastic bags per day will be removed from the laundry system, significantly reducing the 13 million square feet of plastic waste created each year. That’s enough plastic to cover nearly 300 acres of land or 148 Canadian Football League fields.

“Cutting back the amount of plastic used in the laundry system represents a significant step forward in our efforts to find innovative ways to make the health system more environmentally sustainable,” said Kerri Cryderman, Executive Director of Environmental Services with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).

Environmental sustainability is a growing area of focus for all partners in the Saskatchewan health system. The SHA, K-Bro, and 3sHealth, which administers health-system laundry services, have committed to working collaboratively whenever possible to identify innovative solutions that deliver both environmental impact and operational efficiencies. 

“Sustainability is a central focus for K-Bro,” noted Barb Lewis, General Manager of the company’s Regina processing facility. “After making this change in other jurisdictions, we have seen the positive impact it can have, and we are happy to work with the SHA and 3sHealth to make a big step towards being more environmentally friendly.”

Bundles of products will be delivered using reusable mesh bags instead of plastic. Several mesh bags at a time will be shipped on large linen carts; these carts will continue to be secured with sturdy plastic “cart covers” to ensure the mesh bags and non-bagged linens don’t fall off during transit.

The changeover is beginning this week.