BIO Bins ( Non Sharps)

we are using an alternative version of them extensively and are seeing some real cost savings. We do not use the orange, only yellow and blue. We introduced the yellow for H&S reasons - staff were putting hands into sharps bins when trying to push in and dispose of IV bags and giving sets. Using the boxes this eliminates the risk. We do not have the boxes in patient areas, they sit in dirty utilities. The vast majority of the waste is the IV bags, used medicated syringes, cannulas etc and no dressings / inco products

Thanks Clare, I'm hoping this will be a cost-saving benefit to us also, like your self the vast majority here will be IV bags also :)

Hi, I've just started looking at this but can't see how its a cost saving - don't they essentially replace a bin/bin bag? I feel like I must be missing something...

Our phamacy uses the Vernacare Clinisafe Cardboard Cartons. I'm trying to find out how they compare but I believe bio-bin are quite transparent with their lifecycle assessment

Econix Carbon Footprint LCA Summary by product.pdf1.04 MB

NHS supply chain has them, we currently use a sharps bin for IV lines/bags etc which is costly, but when I spoke to the rep for the bio bins they said the tiger stripe bio bin was sufficient, £10 cheaper and that was the whole unit (IV, line spike and bag,) so long as no additional medicines such as cytotoxic had been added ….this alongside any non-infectious offensive waste, so technically reducing our waste production?

Be careful...... medicinally contaminated products cannot go into tiger waste stream. Only Saline, glucose and hartmens are sutable for tiger waste as they are classed as not pharmacologically active. All other medicinal waste must be sent as yellow. obviously cytos go purple

Hi folks. I've got some experience in this area having implemented SharpSmart / Biobin combination in theatre and critical care. We analysed our cost, plastic incinerated and waste redirected savings on ICU which were all considerable. We trialled other blue medicinal waste containers when Biobin was temporarily removed from Supply Chain but had a poor experience with bins breaking. Plus, the Vernacare bin comes with a thick plastic bag which is exactly the product we were trying to distance ourselves from. I was one of a number of clinicians and waste managers who explained to Supply Chain why we needed fit-for-purpose medicinal waste containers available and after a few months, BioBins were added back into the catalogue. They are now present in every bedspace on ICU and in every anaesthetic room. Once we explained the benefits to staff, they completely embraced the extra bin. This combinations of SharpSmart / Biobin was without doubt one of the best moves we made to reduce the environmental impact of our clinical waste streams.

thanks for this Richard, do you have a link to these ones please?

We also introduced these as we discovered some doctors were 'way behind' on the correct drug disposal routes.

And these.....

Our one 11-bedded critical care unit estimates that with this approach, we avoid using 2.3 tonnes of single-use plastic from not using single use sharp bins; 6.4 tonnes of waste is redirected from yellow to blue waste stream (our blue is transported only 16 miles for energy-from-wate rather than 160+ miles to cement kiln for yellow waste stream) and £5,500 in costs. Everybody seems to have won except the manufacturer of single-use sharp boxes.