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Recycling Streams in Theatre

Posted on October 18, 2021

Operating theatres produce 20-33% of total hospital waste, including up to 60% of the hospitals’ regulated medical waste. Ensuring we reduce, reuse and recycle where possible can have a substantial impact on costs ($ and eCO2) and waste.

An example of streams that are easy to recycle in a tertiary hospital is available on the below poster from Fiona Stanley Hospital in Western Australia.

Recycling is cost effective

Much waste generated in healthcare facilities can be recycled at a substantially lower cost compared to clinical waste or general waste. Some indicative numbers from circa 2018 compare various waste streams. Note that the default in some organisations is for all clinical waste to end up as medical (infectious) waste, which is expensive and can be incinerated, generating further emissions.

2018 costs per tonne2021 costs per tonne
Medical waste$1410$2600
Diathermy pens, Surgical single use metal instruments, laparoscopes, contaminated hard plastics$990$1200
Syringe recycling$N.A$1200
General waste$182$225
Co-mingled recycling$40$75
PVC recycling and Huck towels$0$0
Sterile wrap (Kimguard)??
Comparison of indicative costs for waste disposal based on 2018 data and 2021 data from 2 different suppliers

Example Recycling Posters

Fiona Stanley Hospital Syringe Recycling Poster
Co-mingled Recycling Poster from Fiona Stanley Hospital

3 thoughts on “Recycling Streams in Theatre”

  1. Ellen Fitzgerald says:
    March 29, 2022 at 9:43 am

    Hi there, just after some suggestions I currently work at Busselton Theatres as a Anaesthetic Tech.
    Just hoping to get rid of Pentothal Trays and just offering paper mache kidney dishes or just using Anaestheis trolley and cleaning after each case with Clinelle wipes most of our Anaesthetists are on board but some are wondering about sterility of end of syringe if not capped I did suggest a small plastic when opened up cut down side so you get about 6 uses just using top layer but then I thought Im just replacing plastic for plastic .So any thoughts for what the Anaesthetists can use.

    1. Ellen Fitzgerald says:
      March 29, 2022 at 9:45 am

      Hi there, just after some suggestions I currently work at Busselton Theatres as a Anaesthetic Tech.
      Just hoping to get rid of Pentothal Trays and just offering paper mache kidney dishes or just using Anaestheis trolley and cleaning after each case with Clinelle wipes most of our Anaesthetists are on board but some are wondering about sterility of end of syringe if not capped I did suggest a small plastic when opened up cut down side so you get about 6 uses just using top layer but then I thought Im just replacing plastic for plastic .So any thoughts for what the Anaesthetists can use.

      Reply
      Reply to Ellen Fitzgerald

      1. admin says:
        March 29, 2022 at 1:46 pm

        Hi Ellen, thanks for reaching out. At Fiona Stanley we use hard plastic kidney dishes, which we reuse (cleaning with oxivir wipes, similar to clinelle I believe). The party line is that the kidney dishes are clean but not sterile, so syringe tips should be capped with a needle or cap or vial or something! Sterile plastic sheets are available and are used by some anaesthetists but the point is made that we plonk vials and other ‘things’ on the sterile sheet, which renders it no-longer sterile, so why not just use the top of the trolley and wipe it down between cases. Good luck. I’ve also replied to this post on the WA Health Green THeatres network Teams Group for ongoing banter. Cheers, James

Comments are closed.

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