New recycling scheme introduced in the Highlands enables patients at Clyde Munro Dental Group practices to dispose of dental care products responsibly
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A range of household dental care products can now be disposed of responsibly in the Highlands after Scotland’s largest dental group introduced a breakthrough scheme to divert waste from landfill.
Inshes Dental Centre and Torwood Dental Practice in Inverness, Invergordon Dental Practice, McIntyre Corbet and Associates of Dingwall, Glencoe Dental Centre and M&S Dental Care in Fort William have joined Philips’s Dental Care Recycling Programme, in partnership with TerraCycle, leaders in recycling "hard-to-recycle" waste.
The practices are part of the Clyde Munro Dental Group which is introducing the scheme north of the border.
As well as used electric toothbrush heads and covers, it recycles items such plastic floss holders, floss containers, electric flosser nozzles and interdental brushes from all brands.
The participating practices will offer a collection point within their reception area for patients to drop off dental care products at their next scheduled appointment.
With 48 of the group's 51 practices taking part, reaching more than 360,000 patients, it makes it the biggest introduction of the programme in Scotland.
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.
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 and has grown rapidly since through more acquisitions. It has plans to continue expanding.
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