Holly Dodd
Hospitals North, Tasmanian Health
Through the passion and persistence of a dedicated group of employees, the Waste and Recycling Management (WARM) committee was born. Waste recycling streams were implemented at Launceston General Hospital, North Tasmania by WARM. WARM investigated local companies and programs that offered recycling services for a variety of products.
Recycling in a regional hospital, on an island with a population of approximately 530,000 people does impact the level of recycling that can be successfully achieved. The impact of COVID and cost constraints for the recycling companies, has unfortunately resulted in the loss of several waste recycling streams in the last two years.
Throughout the hospital precinct we have, however continued to strive to re-establish and implement additional waste recycling streams for a variety of plastic products, and single use metal instruments.
Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) plays a key role in safely recycling products such as single use metal instruments used in the clinical setting. Risk mitigation and process development by IPC is required to support successful recycling of this stream.
Employee engagement, education and monitoring are essential to a successful recycling programme, as contamination of recycled waste can instantly halt recycling the waste stream.
As the world strives to reduce the impact of climate change, we in healthcare should be looking to reduce and recycle waste wherever possible to also reduce the impacts of waste on the environment.