Introduction
The environmental impact of healthcare is estimated to be 5% of the total global impact and up to 10% in certain countries. The Green Healthcare programme in Ireland has published aims on its website to recycle 70% of the packaging waste and reduce waste sent to landfill by 10% by 2035. Currently the national average of recycled waste from hospitals is 11%
Method
We commenced a waste analysis project to assess the carbon footprint of our theatres. We measured the amount of waste which could potentially be recycled and preformed an economic analysis on this data to calculate projected cost benefit. Pilot analysis split waste into three categories – recyclable, landfill, and healthcare risk. Cases included ranged from minor to major complex including robotic procedures.
Results
Waste destined for the incinerator was excluded Pilot data showed that recyclable waste per case ranged from 400g to 2kg. which represents up to 50% of waste that would have otherwise been destined for landfill
Conclusions
Significant environmental and monetary savings are possible and recycling in theatre has been shown to be feasible in other hospitals. This does however require engagement from all staff and hospital administration. Further analysis is required to quantify the monetary cost to introduce a recycling programme and to determine optimum pathways for waste disposal in the theatre setting.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.