Hannah Montgomery, Founder of Grace Cares explores how reusing, repairing and redistributing care equipment can reduce waste, cut costs and strengthen sustainability across the sector.
Care providers are under constant pressure. Tight margins, workforce shortages, rising compliance expectations and increasing operating costs all make everyday decisions feel high stakes. One area often overlooked, however, is the hidden cost – and risk – of how care equipment is managed.
Across care homes, home care services, supported living, extra care housing, respite and reablement settings, large volumes of usable equipment are routinely discarded. Beds replaced during refurbishment, wheelchairs following a resident’s death, and surplus aids after changing needs or short-term placements too often go straight into a skip, at a cost to both the provider and the environment. This linear “buy, use, dispose” model no longer stacks up.
A circular economy approach in care means keeping essential equipment in use for as long as it is safe and appropriate to do so. Through community-based reuse schemes such as Grace Cares, unwanted equipment is professionally cleaned, safety tested and refurbished where needed before being reintroduced into circulation at a fraction of the cost of new. This reduces waste, avoids unnecessary replacement costs and supports a more resilient care system. When supply chains failed during Covid-19, services with access to reused and refurbished stock were better able to maintain safe, continuous care. Circular care is therefore not just about sustainability – it is about business continuity.
Care equipment also carries a significant environmental footprint once raw materials, manufacturing and transport are taken into account. Discarding usable items and replacing them with new effectively doubles that impact. Repeated across beds, mattresses, hoists and mobility aids used throughout regulated care settings, this pattern contributes to landfill, carbon emissions and unnecessary waste. Reuse avoids that harm entirely while supporting more responsible resource management.
Care providers working with reuse partners consistently report significant savings by sourcing refurbished equipment rather than buying new. These savings support financial resilience at a time when every line of expenditure is under scrutiny. As one care home chief executive explains:
“Grace Cares don’t just supply – they collaborate. It’s a smart, sustainable partnership that supports compliance, profitability and purpose.”
There is also a clear alignment with expectations around leadership, governance and sustainability. Demonstrating responsible resource management, carbon awareness and social impact increasingly forms part of what good leadership looks like, particularly for owners, managers and finance leads accountable for long-term viability.
Circular care also creates measurable social value – something that is increasingly material for care providers. Banks, lenders, local authorities and commissioners now routinely ask providers to evidence social value and environmental impact as part of tenders, funding applications and refinancing discussions. This is no longer a narrative exercise; it is increasingly scored and weighted.
Independent analysis shows that every £1 generated through the Grace Cares model delivers between £4 and £7 of social value. As a not-for-profit organisation, all income is reinvested into supporting care providers to evidence environmental sustainability, and into grants that help unpaid caregivers and older people afford and access care. For providers, this strengthens ESG reporting, supports competitive bids and demonstrates leadership rooted in real outcomes.
Embedding circular economy thinking does not require radical change. It starts with practical decisions such as questioning disposal as the default option, planning reuse alongside procurement, and capturing cost, carbon and social value impacts.
Circular care offers a rare triple win – reducing expenditure, strengthening resilience and improving sustainability. In a sector built on care, responsibility and stewardship, keeping vital equipment in circulation is not just good practice. It is good leadership.
