In the bowels of Western’s Support Services Building bags of old surgical towels are sitting on shelves.
Bagged rags ready for use by Physical Plant staff started life in Ontario hospitals.
These towels were once covered with blood and hospital waste. And these towels will soon be used to wash the sinks and polish the mirrors around campus.
Don’t panic. They’ve been cleaned.
They’re called “wipers” by the staff at the Physical Plant Department and they come in green, blue and turquoise. They give university caretakers a chance to reuse something which would otherwise have be thrown out.
The towels are sent from hospitals to laundries where they are washed before being sent to a company called Ontario Wipers and Textiles (OWT). From there they are sold to distributors and eventually end up at Western.
“It makes so much sense,” says Laura Etcovitch, whose father owns OWT. “We have it anyway. If we don’t use it we’re going to throw it out.”
Even though the wipers are used, Etcovitch says the wipers show recycled doesn’t mean bad quality. The material from which the wipers are made gets softer and more absorbent each time it is washed.
“That’s the beauty of recycling,” said Etcovitch. “Some things are better when they’re used.”
Once they get to Western they are used by Physical Plant caretakers around campus. They are used by the school for as long as possible until they are thrown out.
“We’d rather use them than disposable ones,” says Gerald Minler, the manager of Caretaker Services.
The wipers last much longer than disposable rags. Some last three or four years. They are also better for the environment, which is important to Minler. Physical Plant also buys white rags which are made from recycled clothing.
“We’re trying to contribute to our society,” says Minler. “We want to do our part.”
The writer is a graduate student in Journalism.