Reducing our carbon foot print

[lazyacres]

I am interested in reducing our carbon foot print. I work as Division 2 Endorsed registered nurse in a country town nursing home in central Victoria Australia. I am also the Occupational Health and Safety representative. I very interested in "manual handling" and doing things a smarter way. Where I work our residents are high care. They use incontinence pads which are disposed of in plastic lined brown paper bags. They then go into large rubbish bins and probably to into landfill. (how long would they take to break down?):bow:SO, this is my question does anyone or any hospital,nursing home etc, having a better way of dealing with used incontinence pads?

[XB9S, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN, APN]

Hi there, I have moved your post to the Australian and NZ nurses forum as I think you will get a more appropriate response.

[yanmah]

Hi, i applaud you for caring about your carbon footprint.

In WA, in my experience, incontinence pads are just put straight into plastic bags, ie in patients rooms and then in large ward or wing bins. So at least that skips the paper bag step. I would imagine that take hundred years to break down, with all that plastic. and it 's not like your work will get contracts for biodegradable pads if they existed, due to cost comes first.

Maybe you can tell me why my new employer doesn't have recyling at all, for paper, plastic etc and has no environmental policies.

[yanmah]

Sorry i meant why wrap them indiviually, just put them straight into room bins, for collection when full, or would there be odor problems

Thanks Lee

[lazyacres]

The pads are not individually wrapped. The brown paper bag is lined with plastic and can hold about 10 to 15 pads. About recycling if you have the garbage collected by a contractor then they usually supply bins for recycling. I did a risk assessment on the amount of rubbish we have as opposed to recycling and we got a smaller bin for general rubbish and one for recycling. Some bins are costed on size, so the general rubbish bin is now emptied less frequently therefore saving MONEY:) and isn't that what management want to hear. I still think there is a better way of disposing of the pads without burying them. An incinerator would be good and if burns hot enough there would be less pollution and it have to be fitted with something like a catalytic converter. Again there is the cost of this things.