recyclling in the OR

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Hi there,

I started my OR Nursing career 6 months ago. I am happy to say that I enjoy it very much! But recently I have been very concerned with the amount of clean (when opening the room, before the patient comes in) garbage that gets thrown away. I know people have brought home blue tray wrappers to wrap breakable household items and laps for cleaning and rubberbands, etc....but what about the bottles, metal rings around the bottles, and suture wrappers and paper and plastic, etc.....Can any of those things be recycled?

I guess I am trying to be a little earth conscious....Anyone else thought about this?

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Specializes in OR.

I have had the same thoughts! Many of the plastic cases are recyclable - it is such as shame and a waste that these things get thrown away. I cannot even get my hospital to recycle soda cans - so do not know how I can get them to recycle in the OR. It sucks.

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Hey--hugely valid concern. Glad that I saw this post!! My hospital system began a recycling program several years ago and has won awards for it. Legacy Health System in Portland, OR.

I've worked at three hospitals throughout the system--two of the ORs had big blue plastic bins in the corner with plastic bags for recycling that were only emptied as needed. Other place took out the recycling every case. All clean packaging, wrappers, foil from knife blades and suture, saline and H20 bottles, blue wraps, etc. thrown in the OR receptacle, bags sent to the central sorting facility, sorted in the sheltered workshop run by the health system and sent accordingly to the city recycling place. There have been news articles on this, and the hospital system has saved impressive amounts of waste in terms of tons recycled as well as millions on medical waste disposal.

Legacy's PR info related to their waste reduction

http://www.legacyhealth.org/body.cfm?id=1891

Info from the organization "Hospitals for a Healthy Environment" on a conference featuring "our guy," Tom Badrick:

http://www.h2e-online.org/teleconferences/ConferenceDetails.cfm?Date=2007-09-14&teleconfid=380

Hope this helps.

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What a pleasant surprise to stumble across this...so from the "our guy in this post"...I'd throw down the gauntlet and offer free help to anyone who asks on how to make this work at your facility... and I really mean anyone.

Tom Badrick

Sustainability Coordinator

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Specializes in jack of all trades, master of none.

Good idea... We don't really "recycle." We "reprocess" things, like tourniquet cuffs, drill bits, saw blades... mostly stuff you would never want to re-use... Ughgh

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