FOI – 2024-000284 Incontinence and Sanitary products (HTML)

Date received – 02 August 2024 | Date responded – 02 September 2024

Request

I work at a company called Impact Recycling, which you may be familiar with as we were partially funded by NHS.

We have set up a plant in Bellshill industrial estate which utilizes sterilised orange bag stream waste, separates the plastic from this waste stream and reclaims the polymers to be put back into product manufacturing.

One of our primary goals as a recycling company is to generate as little waste as possible and to achieve that, we need to know this stuff inside out, so we know what to do with it.

What I'm trying to find out, if someone could or would be willing to share with me, is what some of the materials the non-plastic portion of this waste are made from.

Primarily what I'm looking at right now are things like nappies, sanitary products and bandages. I'd like to focus on the sanitary and incontinence products at the moment. I need to figure out their composition/what materials they're made from.

If there is any way someone could get in touch to have a chat or shoot me an email to send me in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it.

P.s I've worked in the NHS medical supply chain, the private company that deals with NHS waste collection and treatment, during covid and through the time when that facility burned to the ground in front of us, then the facility used as contingency. I have a pretty good idea of how busy you are and how low this is on your priority list, if there is anything whatsoever you can help me learn about this, I would be extremely grateful, and with that information we may be able to make the world a little greener.

Response

Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act, 2002 (FOISA) an organisation does not have to provide that information if it does not hold it. NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) does not hold any information on which materials are in the non-plastic portion of the orange bag stream waste. We suggest that you contact the supplier of sanitary and incontinence products to obtain the information you are requesting – Ontex Ltd.

I trust you will find the information of assistance and if you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of how we have dealt with your request, you can make representations to us asking us to review the handling of your request.

If you require any further information, please contact Head of Information and Cyber Security, Digital and Security within 40 working days of the date of this correspondence.

Contact

Address

If after a review you are still unhappy, you also have the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who can be contacted at Kinburn Castle, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS, or via their application form.

National Services Scotland (NSS) is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. You can view all FOI responses within our FOI Publications repository.