Operating Room Waste

Operating rooms are creating a disproportionate amount of waste for the space they occupy in a hospital, accounting for 20-30% of all hospital waste (Kagoma et al. 1905 ). Imagine a bustling operating room: a patient is being operated on and there are surgical instruments laid out on a blue tarp-covered table. The surgeon asks a nurse for gauze and the ripping open of the package is heard, which is then thrown in the trash. Supply after supply is unveiled in their sterilized package, and one by one those packages all end up in the garbage. Next, the surgeon accidentally drops a suction on the floor. Instinctively the nurse rips open another package which is once again thrown in the trash. While the surgeon is inserting stitches into the patient, the scope focuses on the table where the instruments are laid out on. One-third of these instruments were actually used for the operation, but all of them have to be re-sterilized. Next, the nurse throws the bloodied tarp into the
1905). Some of these wastes include plastic wrappers for gloves, gauze, instruments, blue wrap (placed on tables as well as the patient during the surgery), and gowns worn by operating staff. Some of these instruments become contaminated and are labeled as biohazardous. These biohazardous materials may include bloodied surgical instruments, contaminated needles, body tissue, or anything with blood or bodily fluids on it (Conrardy 712). Sterile fields -- areas with minimal microorganisms -- are created using sterile drapes, gloves, gowns, and face masks (Conrardy 712). These products are typically disposable and are where a lot of waste production lies (Conrardy 712). Due to the large amount of waste created through the improper disposal of often untouched materials in hospitals and operating rooms, it is necessary to reduce the disposal of these