In a development that would hopefully be promulgated on rather better reasons than simply kicking back at the seemingly universally unpopular Stericycle Utah incinerator proposals, it is reported that a Utah hospital has decide to install a “clean-air hybrid technology that converts medical waste into ordinary trash using a biodegradable, disinfectant-based process”.

Hyped by the press as an alternative solution for managing clinical wastes, the development at Blue Mountain Hospital in Blanding, Utah, seems too good to be true, but that doesn’t have to get in the way of a popular news report.

“A small hospital in Blanding has announced it will dispose of its own medical waste and no longer be among those facilities that ship medical waste to Stericycle in south Davis County for incineration. Medical facilities from eight Western states ship their waste to Utah for disposal.

“It said the system is small, similar to the size of a photocopier, and shreds and disinfects medical waste using an environmentally friendly disinfectant. After treatment of the waste, the resulting solid waste material is disposed of alongside regular trash in accordance with solid-waste regulations.

“The process eliminates many of the toxins associated with waste disposal, which have created emission-related issues with the state as well as neighbors in North Salt Lake.

“The CEO of Blue Mountain Hospital, said the hospital often had to haul its medical waste several hundred miles across state lines and paid as much as $5,000 each month for the incineration. The new technology has reduced that cost to $2,000 per month.

Well, that all seems fine. For a small hospital, it is conceivable that some savings will accrue.

However, we are well aware of other waste streams not amenable to ATT processing that necessitate incineration. Regrettably, that doesn’t get a mention in the report, and as the difficulties faced by Stericycle roll on this sort of dis-information which will be picked up as gospel by the public and protestors, simply does not help. We can only hope that planners, regulators, and politicians take a little more time to obtain the real and complete facts before making any decisions.