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Global Links
Contact: Angela Garcia, +1 412.361.3424, ext. 201, agarcia@globallinks.org, www.globallinks.orgPittsburgh Nonprofit Offers Hospitals Innovative Solution: Repurposing Improves Global Healthcare, Reduces Landfill
Synopsis
U.S. hospitals annually discard an estimated $6.25 billion of medical surplus. This still- useful material ends up landfilled or incinerated, increasing costs and adding to environmental pollution. Pittsburgh-based Global Links is working to change that and simultaneously improve global healthcare.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Global Links has recovered and processed more than 3,000 tons of medical materials that would otherwise have been discarded from Western PA health facilities and delivered those materials to health improvement projects in developing countries. If every city had an organization accomplishing this, the positive impact on human lives and the environment would be staggering.
Overview
Global Links works with U.S. healthcare facilities, primarily in Western PA, to recover medical materials destined for disposal due to new technology, changes in vendors, remodeling or consolidation. Global Links recovers and processes these items - which range from syringes to hospital beds -- and makes them available to hospitals that serve the poorest members of society in less developed countries.
In 2008 alone, more than 200 tons of medical equipment was recovered and donated to developing countries.
Even more important than the volume of goods shipped is the meticulous care taken to send only those items that recipients can readily use. Because poorly planned donations can be worse than no aid at all, each shipment is carefully tailored to the needs of the recipient institution. Thousands of volunteers spend hours sorting donated materials, and cleaning and repairing hospital furnishings. They help Global Links maintain high quality standards and low costs -- less than 3 percent is spent on overhead.
Global Links also conducts grassroots efforts throughout Western PA to collect crutches, walkers, wheelchairs and other home healthcare items that are otherwise "non-returnable", discarded or relegated to storage.
Global Links donates these repurposed medical materials to fulfill critical needs and improve healthcare in hospitals and clinics in Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Nicaragua.
No one should die for lack of what others throw away. Global Links is working to speed the day when no one does.
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