We are just starting to try and introduce and rationalise waste recycling into theatres (the trust does not recycle anything!). If anyone else has already done something similar I would be grateful to hear. Thank you.
Hi Christine, sorry nobody has got back to you earlier about your enquiry - I hope your project is going well.
There are a number of trusts who have been doing some good work with regard to recycling waste in theatres. North Bristol trust have set up a working group in theatres and have a number of projects on the go including promoting recycling awareness – what can and cannot be recycled from theatres. Additionally, Barts Health NHS Trust have done lots of work, see here for details: https://www.gaspanaesthesia.com/the-projects
The theatres team in Southampton have also done some work on improving their recycling in theatres (including taking a trip to their local recycling plant!). Let me know if you would like me to put you in touch with anyone from these trusts (most are members of this network too).
Good evening Christine,
Charlotte's mentioned a couple of great places to start. There are also some articles in Anaesesia News (a monthly publication by the Association of Anaesthetists) over the past couple of years which outline people's projects in theatres looking at waste streams and ensuring appropriate disposal of waste etc. I'm currently doing an OOPE in sustainable anaesthesia and am working with the association in producing a waste flow chart which should help to give some national guidelines on what waste should be going into which waste streams. For the time being there is some more information which might be useful to you in the environmental pages of the Association's website (
https://anaesthetists.org/Home/Resources-publications/Environment). I'm also happy to discuss things further over e-mail if you think that would help? My address is envirofellow@anaesthetists.org. If you know any anaesthetists who are members of the Association they would also be able to give you access to the Anaesthesia News articles.
Kindest regards,
Cathy
Hi Cathy
Thank you very much for your reply and advice. I'll certainly look up the Association of Anaesthetists and see what has been done by other teams. I know that our theatres management have made a start with recycling of sharps bins and monitoring areas where we know improvements could be made to systems. It's slow and seems to be beset by contractual commitments which prevent us from making some of the changes we need to make.
With best wishes.
Christine