Mary O’Riordan- HaPEE (Health, Agriculture, P.P.E)
Dave Mac's Local Legend
Wednesday, 17 May 2023 - 4 minutes
Mary O’Riordan from Millstreet and Lisa O’Riordan from Macroom have teamed up to try and make the medical industry more sustainable with their Company HaPPE (Health, Agriculture, P.P.E).
It’s all part of the Bord na Móna Accelerate Green Programme
They’ve produced an innovative idea to reduce plastics in health care, with the invention of a compostable single use slash apron.
There’s about 50 million of these used every year, which equates to approximately 500 tons of plastic.
The apron is composable in 8 weeks, rather than spending 50 years in a landfill which your normal plastic apron would be there for.
The concept came about from a combination of Mary’s 18 years of working in the health sector and in infectious diseases, along with her cousin Lisa’s business mind, and with Mary’s brother bringing their attention to an apron used in agriculture.
They then went about seeing if they could use something similar for the health service.
