Published 10 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b609
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b609

Analysis

Coming round to recycling

David C J Hutchins, medical student, Stuart M White, consultant in anaesthesia

1 Brighton Anaesthesia Research Forum, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, East Sussex BN2 5BE

Correspondence to: S M White stuart.white@bsuh.nhs.uk

Increasing numbers of people are trying to reduce and recycle their domestic waste, but hospitals have been slower to get the message. David Hutchins and Stuart White look at the potential environmental and financial benefits

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Both the UK government and the British Medical Association have recently published strategies for "greener" health care.1 2 An audit of anaesthetic waste at our hospital found that about 40% of all waste (roughly 950 kg/theatre/year) was potentially recyclable paper, card, plastic, and glass, and only 4% by weight of sharps bin contents was true sharp waste. Although recycling has potential environmental and financial benefits, it is hampered by convenience, technology, lack of knowledge, concerns about environmental safety, and statutory regulation. We discuss how clinicians might cut the amount of waste they produce by reducing, reusing, and recycling resources and suggest ideas for future research.

The NHS produced 408 218 tonnes of waste in 2005-6, 29% of which was clinical waste, and spent nearly £73m ({euro}80m; $103m) on its disposal. This is equivalent to 5.5 kg of waste per patient per day. By comparison, France and Germany, which historically have . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

What’s your carbon reduction strategy?
Fiona Godlee
BMJ 2009 338: b1272. [Extract] [Full Text]

Environmental waste in health care
Gabriel Scally
BMJ 2009 338: b1129. [Extract] [Full Text]

Saving the planet as well as lives
Andrew Cole
BMJ 2009 338: b933. [Extract] [Full Text]

Ten practical actions for doctors to combat climate change
Jenny Griffiths, Alison Hill, Jackie Spiby and Mike Gill, Robin Stott
BMJ 2008 336: 1507. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

How should health professionals take action against climate change?
Anna Coote
BMJ 2008 336: 733-734. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Risk of adverse birth outcomes in populations living near landfill sites
Paul Elliott, David Briggs, Sara Morris, Cornelis de Hoogh, Christopher Hurt, Tina Kold Jensen, Ian Maitland, Sylvia Richardson, Jon Wakefield, and Lars Jarup
BMJ 2001 323: 363-368. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Scally, G. (2009). Environmental waste in health care. BMJ 338: b1129-b1129 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Green shoots of recycling
Ian Blenkharn
bmj.com, 27 Mar 2009 [Full text]
token recycling
Ivan P Hudecek
bmj.com, 31 Mar 2009 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ