The Green Movement

The Green Movement
Theresa Phillips
Kaplan University

I chose an article called Greening of the Red-Bag Waste Stream by Jack McGurk. This is an article related to my field of nursing. It discusses a guide created to reduce medical waste in hospitals in California. Hospitals that got involved in this project agreed to document their findings. They designed a team called “waste busters” to assign responsibilities to, to designate their mission. During this time, they are weighing their red bagged medical waste to measure. Trying to reduce this waste saves the hospital money, also reduces waste in the environment. To have red bagged waste disposed of costs around 19 times as much as disposing of regular trash. There are six main strategies they came up with to reduce waste, and a plan to try and reach their goal for each strategy. This article did not state the outcome of the project, just the strategies involved. First, eliminate solid waste from the medical waste stream. This means basically people throwing trash in with the medical waste. Their plan to get people to stop doing this included training the staff what exactly goes into medical waste containers, posting signs by the red bags/containers what is appropriate or not appropriate, and strategically placing the red containers and trash cans in logical places where people are not tempted to toss their trash into a red container. They would even remove a red trash container if it was not necessary in a room so people would not use it for trash. Second, using the Bio- Elite red bag. Apparently this bag is lighter than a traditional red bag, and made from some recycled materials, yet very strong. They found using these stronger, lighter bags could reduce cost. Third, to implement blue-wrap recycling. This blue wrap is a paper wrap that is sterile around sterile surgical supplies. It was formerly removed and discarded in a red bin. This sterile wrap is not a medical waste, and it was an idea to recycle it to reduce cost. They created recycle containers for the blue wrap, and a company picked up the recycled materials and used it to make siding for houses. They also documented how much blue wrap they were recycling instead of throwing in the red bins. If it had any blood on it though- it of course had to be thrown into a red medical waste bag. Fourth, install reusable sharps containers. A company took the full containers, empties them, cleaned them, and returned them for reuse. This reduced waste and saved money by reusing them. Fifth, to use sharps containers made with recycled materials if you do not use reusable sharps containers. And lastly, to recycle single use medical devices. They determined what could be considered recyclable medical devices; and put a teal medical waste/recycle container in the rooms. The items were recycled instead of discarded as medical waste, saving money and saving the earth from throwing them away (McGurk, 2004).

I chose this article because I have a personal interest in reducing medical waste. Being a nurse and working in dialysis, I throw away a lot of medical waste personally each day, and there is no way around it. I am very cautious to never throw something in a red bag that is not medical waste, but I have seen so many people throw anything they want in there because they are too careless to take a few steps over to a trash can. It is totally sickening to me because that is on our planet forever. I found this article very interesting because although it was written in 2004, 10 whole years ago- I literally have never even heard of some of the things that were being done back then. I live in Ohio, it is not progressive, and I don’t think many people care. If you will take something out of a red bin and throw it in a trash can because you actually have a conscience, people stare at you in complete bewilderment like you are a crazy tree hugger, like why in the world would you do something like that. Well I will do that because I care, and the hospitals should in my opinion take on some of these recycling ideas to save THEM money if they don’t care about anything else in the world! We may use red bags and containers made from recycled materials, I am not totally sure on where we stand with that. But I do know we do not do any type of recycling of any of these items. We also do not use recycled sharps containers, which I think is a very good idea to do. They do post the costs of red bag removal by our bins; they do make sure they try to educate the staff on how to dispose of everything properly. The bottom line to me is that all companies disposing tons of any type of trash should be mandated to recycle as much as possible, and dispose of everything properly. I believe before that happens that it is mandated, companies should try and comply with type of thing on their own accord. I believe employers can come up with programs, and bins of any type they want, and if their employees are careless, it won’t matter. If they came up with incentive programs, calculated the money they saved and possibly distributed a bonus to the employees, they may be more motivated. I feel this article can help me professionally by reminding me to be conscious, and maybe trying to suggest recycle programs to management if the opportunity ever arises. I know that some people and companies do not care, but I personally don’t want to be caved in around red bags on earth someday down the road!

References
McGurk, J. (2004). Greening of the Red-Bag Waste Stream. Retrieved on March 4,2014 from: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/medicalwaste/Documents/MedicalWaste/MedWasteReductionInterventions3.pdf

References: McGurk, J. (2004). Greening of the Red-Bag Waste Stream. Retrieved on March 4,2014 from: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/medicalwaste/Documents/MedicalWaste/MedWasteReductionInterventions3.pdf