Sustainability wins

• Co-mingle recycle bin in tea room

• Removing disposable cups from tea room

• Vial cap re use in art projects

• Stationary recycling in office

• Paper recycling in pharmacies and anaesthetic rooms

• Metal recycling of aluminum packets and diathermy leads

• PVC recycling (face masks, tubing and IV fluid bags)

• Reuse of clean sheeting (eg: soft sheet packaging gets reused to catch spills before being thrown away)

• Smaller or no “yellow” clinical bins in anaesthesia spaces

• Surgeons being more selective about single use equipment

Current issues and ideas

• Would like the support and knowledge of a hospital sustainability officer

• Would like a Workday module on sustainability education

• Sharps protocol for the hospital should be reviewed to reduce what goes into sharps containers

• Need process for medication disposal so glass vials can be recycled

• Bins shape, colour and labels should be standardised across the hospital

• Would like a paper version of the “bluey”

• A food dehydrator would help reduce waste hospital wide

• Greater utility of Neptune fluid waste system

• Soft plastic recycling in the operating rooms

Current activities

• Trialing compostable anaesthetic trays

• Reducing oxygen tubing length

• Considering weekly anaesthetic circuits

• Clean gauze trial to reduce packaging generation in non-sterile areas

Activity in the operating theatre

• Rationalise sharps bin use

• Glass vial recycling

• Soft plastic recyling