Hospitals 'inundated' after recycling scheme launch

Physiotherapist Deborah Kerry said people have embraced the initiative

More than 200 crutches, sticks and walking frames have been collected after a Nottinghamshire hospital trust launched a recycling scheme.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (SFH) started the initiative in February to reduce the amount of walking aids ending up in landfill.

The items can be returned to King's Mill Hospital, Mansfield Community Hospital and Byron House at Newark Hospital, no matter where they came from.

Organisers said they were delighted to be "inundated" with donations and encouraged people to keep handing them in.

Deborah Kerry, a physiotherapist at SFH who introduced the scheme, said: "I'm so pleased that the public have embraced this idea and am extremely grateful to everyone who has returned a walking aid so far.

"We were inundated in the first week of launching the scheme and I hope that people continue to return their unused and unwanted walking aids, which will be safety checked, repaired and reissued where appropriate.

"The scheme will greatly reduce the number of walking aids being taken to landfill unnecessarily, which is great news for the environment."

The trust introduced a Climate Action Project Group in 2020 to work towards the NHS target of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.