Disposal of pacemakers after death
When pacemakers find their way to a cremator there is inevitably a rather big bang and substantial consequential contamination that is best avoided. Funeral directors do their best to capture those […]
recycling
In the trash?
The diversity of items that find their way via household wastes offered for recycling shows almost no limit as those who work in recycling sheds will testify. But in California, […]
Clinical waste firm aims for zero waste to landfill
Clinical waste company SRCL has announced it is aiming to meet a zero waste to landfill target by the end of the year. SRCL also revealed that 60% of the waste […]
Metals recycling from clinical wastes
The Dutch firm Orthometals is successfully operating a metals recovery service for crematoria, collecting implant metals, and if they’re lucky the odd gold ring and several shiny gold tooth caps […]
‘Recova wrap’ recycling scheme for the NHS
It’s the bane of many waste treatment facilities. Blue spun (non-woven) polypropylene wrap often ties its way around the best of shredders causing many hold-ups and some equipment damage during […]
Cleaning-up of South Africa’s healthcare waste sector
It should come as no surprise that South Africa’s healthcare waste sector “is riddled with allegations of financial impropriety, corruption, overloaded facilities and use of inappropriate transport vehicles and storage facilities.” […]
Recovery of plastics from clinical wastes
Despite all its woes, the recycling industries have a good record – it could be much better – of recovering material resources for reuse. With correct processing, it matters not […]
Plastics recovery and recycling from clinical wastes
Plastics recovery and recycling from clinical wastes has been a thorny matter, with Environment Agency pedants saying No without a thought to the material, environmental and economic value of resource […]
Processing clinical wastes? Try a worm farm!
Worm farms are popular, green, low in cost and maintenance, even trendy, but are they suitable for treating for clinical wastes? Is this a step too far? Not according to […]
Health & Safety Manager – Waste Management
Health & Safety Manager-Waste Management, Surrey Salary – £40k- £50k basic The client operates the largest independent recycling business in the SE and has operations over various sites in the […]
Trying something new
There is often a desire to try something new, to diversity perhaps, or to extend an existing waste management practise perhaps to develop resource recovery or inclusion of an additional waste […]
Hospital recycles operating room waste into park benches
A Brunswick, Maine, hospital is reported to be successfully recycling operating room waste into park benches. Mid Coast Hospital has launched a new recycling program that turns plastic waste from its […]
A better waste sack?
Many companies seek to produce a better waste sack. It is a worthy goal, but one hampered by cost of development and the reality that a sack costing even 1p more […]
An addict’s needle – just what are the risks?
An addict’s needle – just what are the risks? Actually, this is an almost impossible question since the risk depended on the type of needle – wide hollow-bore needles are […]
China’s emerging waste sector opportunities
China’s is a vast and largely untapped market. For the clinical and related waste sectors, there are many opportunities though in larger centers, large towns and most cities, an infrastructure […]
Medical device recycling and reprocessing
Clemson University in South Carolina has developed a certificate program on medical device recycling and reprocessing. This is an interesting, and perhaps rather brave step since the product liability issues […]
Why so much paper?
Many sacks of clinical waste contain substantial amounts of paper waste. Some of it is secondary wrappings from sterile items and I have not problem with that, since separation is […]
Bullying – not the way to manage sharps injury
Twice in the last 10 days I have had calls from individuals concerned about sharps injury. One, a waste handler working at a domestic waste recycling operation, was concerned that he […]
Bad recycling
Recycling is good. Well, it’s almost always good and we should do all we can to promote it, including the recovery for recycling and reuse of material resources from appropriately […]
Improving clinical waste disposal practice
How do we improve clinical waste disposal practice? The answer to this question is not so easy. There is the hugely bloated HTM 07-01 that seeks to instruct but not inform, […]
Greening healthcare
There are many pressures on hospitals and other healthcare service providers, healthcare consumables and equipment suppliers, designers, builders and operators of healthcare premises, and of those servicing the waste disposal […]
Medical waste is not recyclable?
“Medical waste is not recyclable” This is the banner headline in a news report concerning, yet again, the persistent problem of sharps turning up in household recyclables. The statement is […]
Re-processing and re-use of single-use medical equipment
There has, for some considerable time, been considerable interest in the re-processing for re-use of single-use medical equipment and devices. If reprocessing is undertaken with sufficient care to provide a safe and effective […]
Plastics recycling from healthcare wastes
The Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC) has finalized an agreement with Stanford University Medical Center to begin a six-month pilot study to develop a better understanding of plastic waste characterization within healthcare facilities. […]
Dumpster kids earn 50p per kilo scavenging hospital waste
A few minutes away from the main Peshawar hospitals, children rummage through trash, collecting used syringes, sharp blades and blood bags. These children are gathering medical waste from garbage dumps […]
South coast bin men face needles in black sacks
Two binmen from West Sussex are facing a risk of infection and months of blood tests after being accidentally pricked by hypodermic needles. The needles had been left incorrectly in […]
Safe management of healthcare wastes at Bir Hospital, Kathmandu
It is far too easy to believe that the safe management of healthcare waste is something of a done deal, with improvement required only in cost minimization and resource recovery […]
Ambulance company accused of dumping medical waste
The Capital District Ambulance Service is accused of dumping medical waste in abandoned ambulances. CBS6 has learned that DGS workers who were performing routine maintenance found bags of blood-soaked rags and dirty […]
US community sharps incidents
Calrecycle have reported a collection of sharps-related incidents reported in the news: Boy, 7, pricks himself with a syringe he found on an Oakland play yard Beach Closed After Hypodermic Needles […]
Greener healthcare
Healthcare is becoming more green, slowly, sometimes very slowly, but there are improvements. Some measures are clearly valuable and worthwhile. Others perhaps less so though if it sends a positive […]