recycling- seriously

[jenna_rn]

OK everyone. Hospitals are one of the greatest energy consumers of any institution.. I am very serious about these questions. I really really really want to know if any of you work for a organization/ hospital that has POLICIES and PRACTICES around recycling. I am not just talking about pop cans here.Is the paper you use made from recycled paper? Do you have electric eye faucets?Is you paper you throw out shredded and recycled? Do you have training on recycling? What has your hospital done to reduce energy consumption and pollution etc.? Do you recycle pop cans ( hehe). Is there greenspace for the staff and patients?Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[RNperdiem, RN]

At our hospital there is a box with a slit in the top for us to dispose of white paper in. The boxes are emptied by a company that specializes in shredding and recycling paper for hospitals. We do go through lots of paper.

Greenspace is minimal around the hospital. We have a couple of courtyards, but on a big university campus, space is expensive and in demand.

Public transport is free in Chapel Hill. Unfortunately most of us cannot afford to live in Chapel Hill. Except for a couple of bicycle commuters, the majority of us drive our own cars.

[hikernurse]

Nope. I get frustrated because so much (clean) plastic is thrown away each day. Just think of how much plastic is tossed each time you get IV meds ready.

We do have paper recycling; although I don't know what they do with the shredded stuff.

Other than being better for the environment, recycling could be a huge public relations boon, too. You'd think that would capture their interest .

[barbaratruth, RN]

I just finished a summer externship at a large hospital. I could not believe the amount of wasted plastics. All of the patient's plastics (cups, pitchers, basins, etc.) go in the garbage. I asked if they recycled them and the response I got was "only if you want to take it home."

I was particularly bothered by amount of blue hangers for IVPBs that go in the garbage. Why doesn't the manufacturer put the hanger with the primary line package instead? I tossed at least a dozen hangers in one day.

One thing they are going to institute in the next couple of weeks is the clear lock tubing products from Baxter, which is a needleless system. According to the rep who did the inservice, it will obviate the need for the needles, safety needles, and lever locks. Prefilled saline and heparin flushes will be used instead and there will no longer be a need for the small bottles of saline and heparin to draw up the flush. I don't think they are adopting this system for recycling, but for safety purposes.

[allantiques4me]

I was seriously thinking about that at our facility.I mean our kids here have wonderful gardens.Imagine the composted material that gets wasted such as potatoe peels,coffee grounds,ect.I personally have been recycling and composting for years.And we have the most beautiful garden on the block! But I think it might be against the health dept.for the kitchen to save such items.Im not sure what they do with plastics and stuff.

[Mimi2RN, ASN, RN]

Most of the plastic used in our hospital is not recyclable, it's basically trash plastic. We can only turn in #1 and #2 in this town. We do have paper dumpsters that go to be shredded and presumably recycled. Cardboard boxes are mostly crushed and recycled.

We recycle glass bottles, plastic bottles and cans in my dept. In California there is a deposit on these. The difficulty is getting the staff to walk an extra two or three steps to the recycling can. Some people are too lazy to empty the bottle, and rinsing is rare. I've found half empty bottles and cans of soda dumped in the recycling can.

You can see why this country has problems with trash when supposedly intelligent people are such slobs. :icon_roll

At least we can recycle here. We were in Kentucky earlier this year and I was told that we would have to go out of state to recycle our plastic and glass. I had the same problem with glass in Montana, after we found a six-pack of empty beer bottles left in the middle of a road! If I had been driving home I'd have taken them with me.

[ScrappingTrojan]

I posted an inquiry last year about this issue. Seems like no one is really recycling at work. My coworkers and I have formed a green committee on our unit but are getting nowhere with the powers that be. Our unit managers seem supportive, but they say Environmental Services isn't very cooperative. So we've taken it upon ourselves to collect and take to our home recyling bins whatever we can, but it's less than a drop in the bucket. Hopefully in the new building my hospital is putting we'll have some space for bins. What's that quote? "We must be the change we hope to effect" or something like that?

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

I don't think we recycle at our hospital either, but the huge amount of waste I see, coupled with the soaring price of utilities, makes me wonder why we don't use solar panels and wind power to offset some of these costs. (We're in Florida and we always have sun and wind -- always.)

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

It's appalling how much waste is generated by hospitals. We live in a throwaway society. I doubt if this will continue indefinately, the Earth doesn't have infinate resources.

[BlueEyedRN]

It is totally sick how much garbage we make. It really bothered me when I first started. What irks me now is how much paper we use. We do computerized charting now and they always talk about paperless, but we still go through at least 2 reams of paper per shift with labs and reports and med reports and consult reports. The doctors don't like having to log on to the computer to look up stuff, but it makes me mad because they usually hunt me down to ask me instead of just flipping through the chart themselves so it is pointless to print it off anyway.