Claire Lane On Preventing Medical Supplies Going To Waste By Redistribution To Communities In Need

Claire Lane Founder of Save Our Supplies

Claire Lane is the founder and CEO of not-for-profit Save our Supplies (SOS) in 2012 in Brisbane.

Claire is a proud mother of her 2 eco-warrior children. Claire has worked as a registered nurse for 15 years & throughout that time saw a huge problem with medical waste. This led her to take on the challenge of addressing the enormous waste in the healthcare system in Brisbane. SOS now provides collection bins in 13 major Brisbane hospitals to collect reusable medical supplies that would otherwise be added to landfill.

SOS then repackages the supplies and, working with other charities such as Rotary, redistributes them to hospitals and organisations in developing countries. This not only eliminates waste but also reduces greenhouse gas emissions and hospital waste removal fees.

Claire discusses why her team redistributes medical supplies to communities globally and what this means for their stakeholders.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Sarah Ripper] - To start off, could you please share a little bit about your background and what led to your work in the social impact space?

[Claire Lane] - During my career as a nurse, day in, day out, I saw perfectly usable medical items get thrown in the bin. A lot of the times this was for simple reasons. For example, there might have been a nick in the outside package, and although everything inside was still clean and perfectly usable, it didn’t (and still doesn’t) reach our standards. It all went into the bin. Another instance would be if we had a fly in the operating theatre, everything is considered not sterile immediately. Another time, a patient cancelled and because we'd already opened all the supplies for this patient, we couldn't use them again for the next one. It was on this day when everything was being thrown away, I started asking a lot of questions as far as what we do with the supplies and if there is anywhere, we can send it? Basically, I was told, “no, stop asking questions. We throw it in the bin, it's the way it's always been done.” This didn't sit nicely with me and my values. When I went home that day, I called a bunch of charities to see if there was anybody actively collecting these supplies, and soon found out that nowhere was doing it. We did find Rotary, and Rotary has a donation division which sends supplies overseas. The main difference is they weren't actively collecting from hospitals, but they were willing to redistribute our supplies.

We grew from there and then worked up through the years. I used my hospital as a case study to get a good proof of concept. Once I had a good proof of concept with one hospital, we went through and found other hospitals as well.

As we were growing, we didn't have to find the hospitals as much anymore; people started to come to us, which is amazing.

As the Founder and CEO of Save Our Supplies, can you please share more about the enterprise, its purpose, and the impact it's generating?

My goal is to have our collection bins in every hospital in Australia. I want it part of every workplace policy that no clean and usable items get thrown into landfill, and I want it part of government policy as well.

As far as our impact goes, we direct supplies to where they’re needed at the time. For example, during the 2020 Bush fires, everything was redirected to animal rescue collectives to help injured wildlife. When Russia invaded Ukraine, we redirected all our supplies to them as well. With Tonga during their earthquakes, everything got sent there, so we do try to keep up with where the need is. We stocked a whole maternity clinic in Papua New Guinea. They had built the building, had the walls and the roof, but nothing inside the clinic. We were able to stock this entire clinic, which was amazing. There was also another project from Brisbane that sent over a shipping container. This container was a pre-built clinic, and we stocked that shipping container clinic to be able to be sent overseas as well.

Impact happening a bit closer to home would be on our landfill and CO2 emissions, because otherwise everything would end up in landfill. We had one year where we collected 18 tonnes of hand sanitiser that would've ended up in landfill, but instead it got to go to Fiji during their COVID crisis.

As a female medical professional and entrepreneur, what are some of the challenges and opportunities you've faced in your career so far?

I think as a female in the entrepreneurial space, it is a little bit hard to be taken seriously.

I was fortunate my father is a retired venture capitalist; he was an entrepreneur who started his own businesses, so I've had a great mentor the whole time. I don't think I would've been able to do it without my dad, so his input and knowledge was amazing for me. It's starting to shift now I'd like to think, and a lot of women-led businesses and female founders are getting the light shined on them, which is amazing. Slowly we're changing, it's just a little bit hard in the beginning. For myself personally, I'm dyslexic, so I find it hard to write grant applications and government letters because they must be written in a very specific way. I'm not academically minded as far as writing. I can talk until the cows come home, but learning the writing process was a big obstacle and steppingstone for me!

As a participant in Impact Boom's Elevate+ Accelerator program, can you share more about how this program has benefited you as a founder and a business owner?

I've found it inspiring. Every week we hear from different social impact leaders. I like to learn from what they're doing, and I learn a lot from people's mistakes, so I like it when they're real and they show the journey is not just sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes it's difficult, but it's worth it, and seeing where they are now has been amazing. The other people in the group have been lovely. The networking I've had now is awesome. One of the girls in the cohort is doing a brand marketing campaign for me, so before one of our courses last week, I met her a couple of hours early to form my brand. Another person there is getting me a web developer, so the networking I've gotten has been amazing, as well as the mentor that was provided to me through Impact Boom. My mentor has been amazing, he's also interested in ongoing mentorship. He said if I need anything or want someone to bounce ideas back and forth with to let him know. The teachers are lovely also!

What are some key learnings from your journey you can share with changemakers looking to grow their impact?

The biggest thing I've learned is things take time.

I was hoping it would be a lot more of a smooth sailing journey, but you must be persistent. You must be a bit gritty, and you must keep going. If you really believe in your idea, I think that's all you need. You need your passion, and you need your belief behind the idea.

Everything comes after that. If you don't have the passion or the belief, it would be hard to excel to the next level. I was a bit naive going into business, and this naivety was a good thing.

What are some inspiring projects or initiatives you've come across recently that are creating positive social change?

One of my main ones would be an organisation called Sunny Street. They provide free healthcare for homeless and vulnerable communities. The founder of that organisation, Sonia Martin, I've learned a lot from. I met her personally and we've sat down discussed the challenges and our experiences. Just watching her journey has been really inspiring for me, because I can almost replicate what she's doing and learn. Another inspiration is The World's Biggest Garage Sale, which is now Circonomy. Yas Grigalunis I met at the very beginning of my social enterprise journey back in 2019, and she has been a great mentor. Watching what she's done and accomplished has made me feel good, because I've seen this lady flourish and learning from her has been. Those are probably the two main ladies I look up to. I want to follow female founders, because while I'm sure men do a lot of great work, I love watching what women are doing and the impact they're making on the world.

To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?

I would recommend the Impact Boom Elevate+ Accelerator, it has been fantastic. I would say every person should watch Captain Planet at least once in their life. I've gotten it for my kids, and I make them watch it! Another opportunity was getting invited to the ASE Network; they provided a lot of workshops and webinars. I went to as many workshops and listened to as many people as I possibly could. I get a lot more out of actual interaction rather than reading a book.