In the UK, NHS dentists perform 83 million procedures per year, and if that number is doubled to include private practices, then that’s 166 million procedures per year. Each procedure would have a plastic cup for the patient to rinse with which is then discarded, causing huge amounts of plastic waste. The Implant Centre has a target in the practice to reduce their landfill waste by 50 per cent and has also been looking at ways they can do the same for their clinical waste.
Over the last 12 months, The Implant Centre has abolished the use of plastic cups altogether and use just one paper cup per surgical patient.
The Implant Centre is currently delivering over half a million compostable paper cups to dental practices across the South East by bike and foot in a bid to encourage other dental practices to cut down on their own use of plastic. They will also include information on where to purchase compostable cups and what effect their contribution will make to the planet.
To date they have delivered over 150,000 paper cups, which was covered by BBC local news. This has sparked hundreds of calls from fellow dental practices wanting to join the initiative – including Eastbourne District General Hospital.