Narrator
Although she uses a different analogy…Jane Krause, a surgical
nurse at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital, knows first hand what
a difference a concerned group can make.
 Jan Krause-surgical nurse
I think everybody individually can apply a lot of pressure to companies. And a group you become a force and strength comes in numbers. And so every little bit helps in waste reduction…that if you take one pebble and throw it in the water. If you take a hundred pebbles and throw it in you have much more of an effect…and…I think that people can do a lot. If they're interested and motivated like this surgery staff at Good Samaritan we've proven that we can do a lot and we've been doing it almost ten years now…recycling and waste reduction at Good Sam.
Narrator
These are some of the things Jane and her co-workers at Good Samaritan hospital have accomplished.
Jan Krause-Good Samaritan Hospital
One of the things we did to reduce waste at Good Sam…one of the glove companies back in the 1990's decided to change their paper packaging of glove wrappers which we were recycling at the time changed it to plastic. We just came up in arms about the glove wrapper situation. So we decided to save… go ahead let's save all our wrappers…all our plastic wrappers and send them back to the company and make it their problem not our problem in waste reduction. So we did that. We saved 170 pounds of glove wrappers in one month. That's about 12 hundred pounds a year. And said we're not going to put up with this kind of packaging and please do something about it. They were very responsive. They came back a couple of months later with a nice letter and also reduced their package from this size in plastic to half the size in plastic. And it’s much easier to store in volumes. It's much easier to handle the gloves and it's a safer delivery also in sterile technique on the table.
This is a sterile pack…custom pack in surgery…that has our sponges, section…everything we need to do an open heart case…this particular pack. We work with a company in customizing this to making it as lean as possible so we would not have any leftover waste what so ever. And in doing that we've saved 11 thousand pounds of waste a year and saved the hospital over 30 thousand dollars.
Narrator
And that surgery staff is not alone. Sam Armstrong, a sharp-eyed employee of plastic part manufacturer Nypro Oregon, realized that a few simple changes would make their dry air canisters reusable.
Sam Armstrong-Nypro Oregon
…that we use to dry our plastic that we process here. These canisters cost 600 dollars apiece. We use about 100 of them a month. We found by taking the four bolts out of the top and sliding the screen which contains the descant and drilling three little holes in here and draining the descant into a cardboard gaylord and then putting new descant in it and resealing it with bolts and then putting it back together and reusing it. To do that costs us $1.57 compared to the $600 that it cost to buy this one brand new. So 100 times 600 compared to 100 times $1.57 is quite a substantial savings for the company and for the community.
Narrator
As Sam's story demonstrates, saving resources saves money too. It can also keep us healthier as artist John Maher discovered.
John Maher-Maher Fine Art
In terms of toxic reduction this spray adhesive is what I used to use to mount my prints. It's very nasty stuff. Bad for the lungs. Bad for the ozone. And I really wanted to find some way to replace it. What I found was a roll on adhesive…non toxic, archival…won't get brittle. Lasts forever. And there are no fumes from it. Just pour liquid in the back here. Rolls on to the print and it's ready to go.
Narrator
Preventing waste just feels good.
John Maher-Maher Fine Art
It makes me feel better. Rather than all these materials ending up in a land fill I'm making as much use out of them as I possibly can. And then they go to recycling rather then land fill. It's just better use of materials and resources. Makes me feel better about my business and what I'm doing on the planet.
Jeff Detlefsen-Detlefsen Law Office
We recognize in this office that our actions have a larger impact and feel good about the fact that we can operate and as a result of our waste reduction and recycling programs that air pollution will be reduced and water pollution will be reduced and energy consumption is reduced. And the stresses on the virgin resources are also replaced with a secondary material.
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