Doing our bit for the environment!

Climate change is a big issue in the press at the moment and it is something I am quite passionate about. Making good environmental choices in the clinic is something I pride myself on. I thought it would be a good idea to let you know how the clinic is trying to make you look your best while helping the planet look good as well! If you think go anything we can change at the clinic to be more environmentally conscious please feel free to message me and suggest it.

Recycling:

To limit the impact of plastic on the environment the clinic pays for special plastic and other dry recyclable material to be removal via RTS Waste Management. The company recycles bubble wrap, sweet wrappers, plastic packaging and other plastics not recycled by the local councils. This helps the clinic limit the amount of plastic waste that is carried away with normal refuse. Dr Booysen makes special effort to separate plastic and paper from product packaging and chooses products with less plastic whenever possible. When receiving deliveries of products the clinic always requests minimal packaging when possible.

You may have seen this bin in clinic and wondered what it is…

The hairnets used to keep your hair out of the treatment area and gloves that don’t come into contact with blood or hazardous waste is recycled via this prepaid collection bin from TerraCycle. TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Boxes™ can be used to recycle a variety of items from stationery to safety equipment. TerraCycle also has some free recycling programmes.

The clinic uses only recyclable glass or tin cans for your water refreshments, along with paper straws which may be necessary after some treatments such as lip fillers. We use Teapigs tea bags, which are plastic-free, biodegradable, organic, Rainforest alliance certified and Fairtrade tea bags. Our coffee capsules are collected and recycled and we use organic milk in our tea and coffee.

As always, we take meticulous care with clinical waste and have the sharps and medical waste removed via approved protocols by Initial Waste removal.

Product Selection:

Product choices can be difficult as medical storage requirements exist for certain medications such as those used for wrinkle treatments. The clinic is proud to announce we use only Bocouture for these treatments in clinic. Despite being the most purified type of botulinum toxin type A on the market (lowering the risk of resistance – more on this later), the product does not need to be refrigerated prior to reconstitution. What does this mean? Well the product requires less packaging to be transported to the clinic as it doesn’t need to be refrigerated enroute.

This is a photos of the packaging required for just 1 box of wrinkle relaxing treatment that requires refrigeration from start to finish. The only easily recyclable item here is the outer box – less the mountains of tape around the box. Bocouture is shipped in just its own box with no extra padding as it doesn't need refrigeration before mixing! Therefore Bocouture is not only a great clinical choice but an amazing environmental choice too. The lack of refrigerated van to deliver the product and no need for refrigeration in the clinic before mixing means less pollution enters the environment as well.

Suppliers:

The clinic runs on 100% green electricity which is supplied by Tonic.

Carbon Offsetting:

Any air travel undertaken by the Dr Booysen is carbon offset via various means and public transport is chosen whenever possible.

Paperwork:

The clinic uses electronic receipts to avoid needless bits of paper and aftercare advice sheets are now available electronically for you to reference on your phone. I am hoping to move to electronic records soon, but as yet I have not found a storage system that I trust completely to secure your private and sensitive data.

Charities:

The clinic supported the Friends of the Earth with a sizeable donation to Save the Bees this year, this contribution is set to become an annual contribution from the clinic.

If you can think of any other ways we could be more sustainable I would be happy to discuss the ideas with you!