RECYCLING & SUSTAINABILITY
A ‘greener approach’ to healthcare plastics
A focus on some of the key measures that hospitals and other healthcare facilities can take to not only reduce their use of single-use plastics, but also increase their recycling of plastic waste, and work with manufacturers to reduce unnecessary such packaging.
Last year, England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, called on the NHS, as one of the world’s largest employers, to cut its pollutant footprint. Some Trusts have already taken steps to reduce the use of single-use plastics and cut down on waste, but the percentage of plastic waste in NHS streams remains higher than many other industries.
According to the UK’s Sustainable Development Unit (a national unit funded by NHS England and Public Health England), the NHS gets rid of up to 133,000 tonnes of plastic each year, and only around 5% of plastic waste is currently recovered. Although there is room for the NHS to reduce and recycle its plastic waste, particularly around packaging in theatres, it is important to also acknowledge that modern healthcare would not be possible without the use of plastic materials.
Plastic is found in a vast array of medical products - from syringes, catheters, and IV bags, to incubators, inhalation masks, and joint replacement protheses.
Plastic materials also play an important role in pioneering surgical therapies - for example, a flexible polymer patch, co- funded by the British Heart Foundation, has been developed by researchers at the Imperial College London and the University of New South Wales, Australia to improve the conduction of electrical impulses across damaged heart tissue. Plastics are associated with reduced medical costs, and, in the case of joint replacement, can serve to reduce pain levels in patients. However, one of the biggest benefits is plastic’s infection prevention qualities - it is hygienic and easy to clean.
Plastic has the capacity to improve care quality for patients and save lives, but it is increasingly receiving a ‘bad press’. So,
how do we balance clinical and financial imperatives with sustainability?
Hygiene, cost and durability On 27 March 2019, the European Parliament voted for the ‘Single-Use Plastics Directive’, scheduled for implementation by 2021. The Directive places greater responsibility on manufacturers and suppliers to design products for recycling, reprocessing, or reworking. The plastics ban will affect a range of products, including plates, balloon sticks, and earbuds, as well as food and beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene and all products made of oxo-degradable plastic. In 2018, the UK government
implemented its own laws - ahead of the
This article, entitled ‘Getting the balance with healthcare plastics’, first appeared in the June 2019 issue of HEJ’s sister magazine, The Clinical Services Journal. HEJ thanks the magazine’s editor, and the author, for allowing its reproduction here in slightly edited form.
EU - on plastic waste and targets for reducing single-use plastics. There are product exemptions, however, which include medical products for healthcare. Darby Booth, managing director at Warwick Sasco, is concerned that there may be some confusion arising from the Directive. He emphasised that single-use medical products that are unsuitable for cleaning or re-use will still be sold. “We are concerned that plastic is being ‘demonised’ as a material - in the healthcare setting it is often the most practical solution in terms of hygiene, cost, and durability,” he commented. “Plastic has been vital to the development of the world, and this is being forgotten. Plastic is not the problem; it is the misuse and irresponsible disposal of the material that is an issue,” added Warwick Sasco’s commercial manager, Janine Farmer. “You can opt for alternative materials, such as metal or glass, but plastic actually uses less resources during manufacturing than
October 2019 Health Estate Journal 143
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160
