There has been much written about the level in wastage in healthcare, of missed appointments, excessive salaries, waste in heating and lighting, waste of drugs and dressings, and most critically the waste of time that is a costly and irretrievable commodity.

By contrast, little has been written about the waste volumes flowing from hospitals and other healthcare premises. We fret about waste streams and methods for their segregation and treatment, but despite some claims to the contrary little attention is given to approaches at reduction in waste generation and instead focus on shifting wastes from one stream to another.

Writing in The  Washington Post, Nina Shen Rastogi asks about wastage in hospitals, and the vast amount of trash that this creates:

“Recently, my young son was hospitalized for several days, and I couldn’t help but notice the massive amount of goods that were thrown away during the course of his care: disposable smocks, one-use saline syringes, etc. The trash can in our room was emptied three or four times daily! Just how much trash do hospitals produce?

For some of this waste, there are valid reasons of patient safety and hygiene but overall it it true, we are wasteful and generate far too much rubbish most of which flows into the clinical waste stream. Overall, the answers to Nina’s question are illuminating and well-balanced.

Predictably, the solution is far from easy, but will entail smaller pack sizes and a great deal of common sense.