5 Ways Hospitals Get in on the Recycling Game
In the world of healthcare, nothing is more important than keeping things clean and sterile. This helps prevent the spread of infection, viruses, or other germs. It also helps keep technology working at its peak performance. With all of that cleanliness can come a lot of waste. To help combat this, many hospitals have developed recycling programs. Recycling helps cut down on the amount of trash a hospital produces and helps the hospital be more environmentally-friendly. Here are five ways that hospitals may recycle the things that they use.
- Medical Equipment
Hospitals rely on their equipment to be the best so that the doctors and nurses can deliver the best care. So what happens to equipment that is broken or outdated? The exact answer depends on the facility, but there are several options besides the trash heap. Machinery that is still functional and safe could be donated to clinics or hospitals in under-served areas for continued use. That could be a vibrating table, a hospital bed, or even an MRI machine. Equipment that is broken or otherwise unsafe to use can be recycled by electronics and metal processing centers. The individual components could then be reused in new equipment.
- Medical Supplies
In order to keep infection and contamination rates down, hospitals may use a lot of single-use supplies. Items like feeding tubes, intubation kits, and more are only able to be used once by one patient. They are often made of plastic to allow for flexibility and ease of sterilization, but that means that these items come with expiration dates to prevent the plastic from degrading too far. Hospitals typically get regular deliveries of these supplies. When storage space is limited, older stock may be discarded even if the supplies aren’t expired yet. Organizations such as MedShare can take these non-expired supplies and get them to field clinics and hospitals in other countries rather than letting them sit in a landfill.
- Uniforms
Uniforms at a hospital can include scrubs, surgical gowns, lab coats, and more. When these items get worn out, stained, or ripped, then they need to be replaced. Textile recycling is often an option for fabrics that aren’t considered a biohazard. The fibers can be shredded and then used in automobile seat stuffing or for other things. This lets fabric continue to be useful rather than adding to the garbage heap.
- Food & Drink
Hospitals go through a lot of food and drink each day. Meals for patients as well as cafeterias for staff and visitors can mean that a hospital spends more on food each day than many restaurants. Food and drinks that go unused and unopened may be thrown away, even though they’re still safe to use. To reduce the waste, some hospitals donate their unused food to local food banks. That way, the hospital is helping to feed people in the surrounding community instead of wasting food.
- Paper Files
If there’s one thing that hospitals have a lot of, it’s files. Files on staff, files on patients, files on financial reports, orders, inventory, and more. With the development of electronic health records, many hospitals are now keeping patient information in secure databases and inputting information via computers. However, other files may still be kept on paper. The good news is that paper is a material that is easily recyclable. Hospitals should take care to shred any private information, but shredded paper can still be recycled and turned into new pages.
Recycling items wherever possible can help a hospital reduce the amount of waste that they produce. Old machinery can be donated to other places, or recycled by metal processing centers. Medical supplies and food items that aren’t expired can also be donated to other clinics or community service organizations. Even uniforms and paper files can find a new life through recycling. It’s a great way to save the environment while saving lives!
