Supply exchange available to reduce waste

Do you have supplies you’re not using that someone else could use? Do you need office, lab or other supplies? Before you get rid of your materials or purchase new ones, check out LiveGreen’s supply exchange tool.

The online tool is available to list items to get rid of or find.

Here’s how the tool works: Browse through listings to see if there’s anything you can use. If you find something you need, reach out to the person who created the listing. You can contact them directly if a phone number is provided or use the contact feature within the tool. If you need specific items or supplies that aren’t offered, create a listing in the “Looking for Supplies” category, and others can contact you about those materials.

By trading items through the supply exchange tool, you help the med center strive toward its goal of net zero waste with a 90% diversion rate by 2030 and avoid sending materials to the landfill.

Landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions — in 2019, they accounted for about 15% of those emissions. That’s equivalent to 21.6 million passenger vehicles on the road for one year. Methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, and it has significant implications for human health. Emissions from methane are a contributor to ground-level ozone pollution, which is a dangerous form of air pollution that can aggravate respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Reducing methane emissions by 45% would prevent 260,000 premature deaths and 775,000 asthma-related hospital visits and can improve labor hours and crops lost to extreme heat, according to a U.N. study.

So far, the med center has achieved a 41% diversion rate, meaning 41% of its waste was not sent to a landfill. Using the supply exchange tool is just one action to reduce waste and help increase the diversion rate. Check out the online tool and tell colleagues it’s available.