RECYCLING & SUSTAINABILITY
key to its market value. After sorting, Goodwill then sells the blue wrap to a recycler, who in turn reprocesses the plastic into pellets that can be used in various products, including wash buckets, lawn furniture, flowerpots, plastic lumber, and carpeting.8
In the UK, a take-back scheme to collect and recycle PVC oxygen masks and tubing has also been pioneered by two NHS Trust hospitals. RecoMed, the PVC take-back scheme, was set up by resource recovery specialists, Axion Consulting, and the British Plastics Federation, and funded by VinylPlus. The two NHS Trust hospitals to pioneer the recycling scheme were: n Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Trust Foundation, East Grinstead.
n Frimley Park NHS Hospital, Surrey.
The PVC oxygen masks and tubing are placed in RecoMed containers, located on the hospitals’ Recovery Wards. The containers are emptied daily during normal waste collection rounds; the plastic is then stored in a central waste hold, and a pick-up is scheduled by the RecoMed team. The plastic, previously incinerated or sent to a specialist landfill, is recycled into 100% recycled products for the horticultural industry, such as tree ties. Both hospitals are keen to reduce their waste volumes where possible, and have benefited from taking part in RecoMed by saving money on their waste disposal costs and increasing their overall recycling rate.
It is estimated that each year around 2,250 tonnes of PVC could be recycled by collecting oxygen masks, oxygen tubing, and anaesthetic masks alone. RecoMed hopes to work with more UK hospitals to collect and recycle more oxygen masks and tubing in the future.9 The Newcastle Upon Tyne (NUTH) Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has also introduced paper-based Bio-bins for the disposal of medicinal waste, instead of plastic purple-topped rigid yellow containers. The traditional rigid plastic
146 Health Estate Journal October 2019
containers are heavy, and it is estimated that the disposal of the containers alone accounts for 30 to 40% of the Trust’s incineration bill.
The paper-based Bio-bin is a more sustainable material, producing less harmful gases when incinerated, and is 50% lighter than the equivalent plastic container – reducing transport emissions and waste incineration emissions. NUTH’s trial also demonstrated financial savings.10
Responsible management It is not just plastic medical waste that poses an issue at hospitals, however. NHS Trusts in England purchased around 600 million disposable cups between 2013 and 2018 – the equivalent of more than 300,000 per day. A number of hospitals have reintroduced china cups to their wards to reduce the number of disposable cups. One of the Trusts to act on this, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, claims that this is improving the patient experience, as well as reducing waste.11
Ultimately, plastic is a useful material offering many benefits in healthcare applications, but there are also opportunities to reduce waste and the impact on the environment through responsible management.
Hospitals should evaluate their usage and seek opportunities, where possible, to: recycle plastics where practical; work with suppliers to reduce unnecessary packaging, and examine whether single- use is necessary and move to reusable alternatives when safe to do so. They should also eliminate unsound practices such as throwing away unused items in procedure packs, which not only waste NHS money, but also create unnecessary volumes of plastic waste. hej
References 1 Franklin Associates. Impact of Plastics Packaging on Life Cycle Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the United States and Canada. [Online]. 2013. [Available:
https://plastics.americanchemistry.com/ Education-Resources/Publications/ Impact-of-Plastics-Packaging.pdf].
2 Denkstatt. The impact of plastics on life cycle energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. June 2010 [
https://www.plasticseurope.org/ application/files/9015/1310/4686/ september-2010-the-impact-of- plastic.pdf].
3 Trucost report, Plastics and Sustainability: A Valuation of Environmental Benefits, Costs and Opportunities for Continuous Improvement, July 2016. [Accessed at:
https://plastics.americanchemistry.com/ Plastics-and-Sustainability.pdf].
4 Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer. Health Impacts of All Pollution – what do we know?, 2017 [Accessed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/chief-medical-officer- annual-report-2017-health-impacts- of-all-pollution-what-do-we-know].
5 Lee BK, Ellenbecker MJ, Moure-Eraso R. Analyses of the recycling potential of medical plastic wastes. Waste Manag 2002; 22 (5): 461-70.
6 Case study. [Accessed at:
https://www.hprc.org/single-post/2017/ 11/06/Stanford-Pilot-Case-Study].
7 Press release. [Accessed at:
https://www.en.auh.dk/press-room/ news-archive/2017/aarhus-university- hospital-fights-plastic-waste]. 8 Case study. Accessed at:
https://www.hprc.org/single-post/2017/ 02/01/Goodwill-The-Unsung-Hero-of- Healthcare-Plastics-Recycling].
9 Royal College of Physicians. Less waste, more health: A health professional’s guide to reducing waste. [Accessed at:
https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/file/9498/ download?token=WmT8QKzu].
10 ‘English hospitals get through millions of disposable cups every year, new figures reveal’, The Independent, 10 April 2018 [Accessed at:
https://www.independent.co.uk/ environment/hospitals-millions- disposable-cups-nhs-coffee-throw-
away-plastic-pollution-a8298556.html].
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