WASTE MANAGEMENT
replacement, instead of going to landfill. Since the beginning of 2014, Stericycle has recovered 99 per cent of residual waste from clinical waste treatment plants by using it as an alternative to fossil fuels in cement production. The environmental benefits of SRF are significant, reducing emissions and decreasing reliance on fossil fuels. Some infectious waste can be sterilised on hospital sites in autoclaves, which use steam to inactivate microorganisms. The waste can then be sent for recycling or to landfill.
Top of the hierarchy A Bio Systems 15.1 litre container in use.
Additionally, the Industrial Emissions Directive places limits on the amount of emissions allowed by incinerators. At Stericycle, we have reduced the carbon emissions from our incinerators every year since 2011 through a range of energy efficiency measures and other improvements.
Other EfW processes include gasification and pyrolysis. Like incineration, these are thermal processes that use high temperatures to break down waste, the main difference being that they require less oxygen. These are not, however, considered much ‘greener’ than incineration.
One alternative to incineration is the heating of waste to disinfect it. This waste can be shredded and used as Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF), a fossil fuel
At the top end of the waste hierarchy is prevention, which means healthcare facilities should work to minimise the amount of waste generated where possible. They should also ensure that clinical waste is properly assessed and entered into the correct stream. Materials that can be recycled can end up being incinerated if they are mixed with contaminated waste. When waste is unavoidable, the best option environmentally – as the waste hierarchy dictates – is reuse. Stericycle has invested significant resources in the development of treatments that render products safe and suitable for reuse. One of these treatments is the Bio Systems Sharps Management Service. Instead of using disposable containers, Stericycle supplies its customers with reusable containers, which are subsequently collected by Stericycle when full and taken away for disinfection. After the sharps have been disposed of, and the containers have undergone a rigorous three-stage disinfection process, they are quality checked and reassembled, ready for re-use. The disinfection process, as mentioned above, is powered by steam from the incineration process, creating a self-sufficient, sustainable service.
Reduction in single-use containers This process drastically reduces the number of single-use containers needed by healthcare facilities, as the new containers can be reused up to 600 times, and also means that far fewer containers are incinerated – which results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions. In 2017, this sustainable alternative to sharps waste disposal prevented nearly 218,000 single- use plastic containers from being incinerated, which equates to 450 tonnes of single-use plastic.
A member of the ward staff at Eastbourne District General Hospital using the Bio Systems Sharps Management Service.
66 Health Estate Journal January 2019
Stericycle has been providing the Bio Systems Sharps Management Service to Colchester General Hospital since 2016. Scott Yearling, deputy logistics manager, says: “Single-use plastic is a massive issue at the moment, and so the fact we can use fewer plastic containers because of this service is really great. It’s much more sustainable.”
Less of a storage issue
The service is also beneficial to Trusts in other ways, creating financial savings and contributing to a reduction in the number of needlestick injuries. Another benefit, Scott Yearling says, is that storage of the single-use sharps containers is no longer an issue, whereas previously they were taking up valuable space and creating potential hazards. He said: “We had lots of single-use sharps containers being used, and these were stacking up around the site – now Stericycle clears the site regularly, so we no longer get a build-up of waste. The system has also freed up time for our team that was previously spent collecting sharps containers.” The safe management of clinical waste represents a huge environmental challenge, and the development of these kinds of treatments will be essential in carving out a sustainable future for the industry, as well as helping to increase the efficiency of hospitals and clinics, and providing much-needed cost savings for the NHS.
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David Williams
David Williams is the head of Safety, Health, and Compliance at Stericycle, one of the UK’s leading healthcare waste management service providers. He is responsible for ensuring the safe and compliant operation of 18 healthcare waste management facilities across Britain. With 15 years’ industry experience, he has significant technical expertise, and is a regular contributor to articles, guidance, and policy discussion on healthcare waste management, with a particular interest in the development of sustainable solutions. He is a member of the steering committee for the healthcare waste group at the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, and is both a Chartered Environmentalist and a Chartered Waste Manager.
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