Did you know that operating theatres produce approximately 50-70% of the total hospital waste?1
Waste generated in hospitals is split into clinical waste and non-clinical waste. Clinical waste needs to be treated before disposal whilst non-clinical waste can be disposed of in the same way as regular domestic waste.
For gloves in recent years there has been a global promotion of hand hygiene by the World Health Organisation (WHO). However this has inadvertently led to healthcare workers over using gloves rather than performing hand hygiene as recommended.2
Hospital waste management is implemented to increase safety for both patients and staff. As it is important to reduce the risk of blood-borne pathogens, hospital acquired infections and likelihood of a sharps injury. However the environmental consideration has become increasingly important. Where NHS England is producing 156,000 tonnes of clinical waste annually which is then sent to high temperature incineration (HTI) or for alternative treatment (AT). Which has a significant environmental impact with such high carbon emissions.3
This has encouraged the NHS to set an ambitious target of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions from waste management at their sites by 2026.4 However this can only be achieved though collaborated efforts from suppliers, hospital green plans, strategic hospital purchasing and availability of products and technology that support this goal. The hospitals will need to begin implementing solutions such as: