BEND — As Bend resident Ryan Reid tossed his construction trash in the Knott Landfill Recycling Center on Thursday, Feb. 3, he couldn’t believe what he saw: boxes of unopened medical masks, gloves and gowns, some still in their original packaging being dumped.

Reid thought to himself about all the people who have died and gotten sick from the COVID-19 pandemic and how some of this personal protective equipment could have been used.

St. Charles Health System confirmed late Thursday that it had its vendor dump the unopened boxes of personal protective equipment. Reid also confirmed with a landfill operations supervisor that St. Charles sent the supplies.

Chad Centola, the Deschutes County solid waste director, said a vehicle came in Thursday afternoon and dumped an undisclosed amount of boxes, some still attached to wooden pallets, of personal protective equipment in the landfill.

Early in the pandemic, when personal protective equipment like masks, gowns and gloves were in short supply, the hospital scoured its sources for any and all personal protective equipment it could acquire, Lisa Goodman, St. Charles Health System spokeswoman, said in an email.

“In early 2020, St. Charles and other hospital systems around the country were faced with a critical shortage of personal protective equipment,” Goodman said. “We ordered whatever (personal protective equipment) was available, including certain substandard types of (it) we would not have previously considered using.”

But as the supply chain improved, this equipment got moved to the back of the supply warehouse and put in storage by a third-party vendor, Goodman said.

The idea was it would be put to use only in an emergency.

Even as the highly contagious omicron variant circulates in Central Oregon communities, increasing illness and hospitalization, that day never came.

A year later, the hospital realized it wouldn’t need this equipment, so it offered it to organizations, schools, counties, construction firms and religious groups, Goodman said.

“The third party responsible for liquidating this (personal protective equipment) by donation or sales made the decision to discard (it) after many efforts to place it, including shipping it to developing countries,” Goodman said. “While we regret this (personal protective equipment) couldn’t be re-homed, we feel a strong responsibility to provide our caregivers with the safest and highest quality both for their protection and our patients.”

Reid, outraged by the waste and not knowing the background, contacted several media outlets.

“It was pretty shocking and a gross amount of waste,” Reid said. “I have friends in the medical field who still have to reuse masks. There is still a pandemic and high value material was thrown away.”