Earth Day - Reducing Medical Waste

April 22 marks the 40th celebration of Earth Day.

Forty years ago, 20 million people joined together to protest the degradation of the environment. Much has changed in the past forty years; substances we once thought benign are now considered toxic and climate change has come to the forefront of all environmental concerns. There have also been advances in curtailing pollution such as increased rates of recycling and the trading of pollution credits to control acid rain. But we still have a long way to go.

The World Health Organization reported that developed nations generate, on average, over twenty-five pounds of medical waste per person each year. That is a lot of waste, considering the US has a population of over three million people! Now on to the hard part: how do we reduce this huge amount of waste?

Reducing waste in general seems far easier than reducing medical waste. Hospitals dispose of miles of IV tubing and nasal cannulas, tons of contaminated sharps, and all kinds of toxic and radioactive material. With all of the public health concerns, is there any good way to reduce or recycle these materials without increasing exposure to infectious disease?

Sassy Scrubs would love to hear your ideas for reducing medical waste. Do you work in a medical setting and already practice ways to reduce waste, or have ideas on how waste can be reduced? Share your ideas, and maybe in another forty years we can boast reduced amounts of medical waste and a healthier environment.