United States – Stanford University Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic are examining project results to explore how they can best boost plastics recycling at hospitals across the USA.
‘We estimate that up to 6600 tons of solid waste are generated by hospitals daily, and that 20 to 25% of that may be plastics,’ Peylina Chu, an engineer and sustainability specialist with the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council has told Plastics Today. Up to 85% of the plastic generated is non-hazardous.
The project at Stanford has proved that a substantial amount of money could be saved by recycling high-end plastic waste that did not come into contact with patients and is not contaminated, states Mrs Chu. According to her, there is ‘a lot of plastic that can be safely recycled from hospitals’.
Around 75% complete, the study extends to plastic waste collected in surgical services, interventional services including catheterisation and angiography labs, pre- and post-anaesthesia care settings and pharmacy.
Many hospitals already recycle plastic water bottles, foodservice plastics and even blue sterilisation wrap, but Stanford and the Cleveland Clinic hope that the new pilot studies will raise the bar significantly. Mrs Chu notes: ‘One of our goals is to provide more education to recyclers about the recyclability of non-contaminated hospital waste.’
For more information, visit: www.hprc.org and www.greenwaste.com
Read the original story at Plastics Today by clicking on this link: www.bit.ly/V5MYuW
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