Sharps Disposal In the News
DCH Regional Medical Center to reduce carbon footprint with reusable sharps containers
NEWS RELEASE
For more information contact
Brad Fisher, APR, Communication Director
bfisher@dchsystem.com
205.759.7209 Cell 454.7200
TUSCALOOSA – DCH Regional Medical Center is reducing carbon emissions by using reusable sharps containers that prevent a significant amount of cardboard and plastic from going to the landfill each year.
A sharps container is a container that is filled with used medical needles and other sharp medical instruments. The Regional Medical Center has replaced 1,100 disposable containers with reusable containers that are robotically emptied before the container is sterilized and returned.
Each Bio Systems reusable container by Stericycle keeps an average of 600 disposable sharps containers from going to the landfill. According to Stericycle’s carbon footprint estimator tool, the Regional Medical Center diverted 38,421 pounds of carbon dioxide from 64,753 pounds of plastic and 5,002 pounds of cardboard not going to the landfill in 2009. This is the equivalent of not burning 1,978 gallons of gas or not using 727 propane cylinders for barbeques.
Whether hospitals choose to use disposable or reusable sharps containers, government regulations require the proper segregation and disposal of waste. Disposable containers end up in landfills.
Hospital “green teams” like the one at the Regional Medical Center are exploring ways to reduce waste.
“We expect Stericycle’s reusable containers to cut our medical waste stream by about 20 percent,” said Donna Marrero, vice president of outpatient/ancillary services for the DCH Health System and chairman of its “green team.” “This is just another initiative, along with recycling and reducing the use of cleaning chemicals, to reduce our impact on the environment.”