OR Manager - February 2020 - 11

OR business
MGH nursing director for the OR.
The big issue now is sorting through
the middlemen of transportation and
storage.
" We need the ability to store the
blue wrap somewhere for it to be bundled,
packaged, and then transported
to the facility, " says Farrell. " It's a similar
issue with medical grade plastic.
Any waste items that are identifiable as
coming from a health organization are
a challenge-not for the end recycler,
but for the transportation to the end
recycler and how to separate it from the
mainstream waste, " he says.
A big challenge for MGH is its capacity
to store and separate materials,
notes Osgood.
" We are extremely space-constrained
in Boston. We don't have a large area
where we can store different items for
one truck at a time to come for specific
items. This might be different for a facility
in the Midwest, for example, with a
lot of space, " she says.
Potential solutions to additional
challenges
Osgood adds that before the international
policy changes, waste was placed
in a green recycling bin in every OR, and
the staff knew that all noncontaminated
items went into that green bag. " It was
single stream, and we just had to take
that bag out at the end of the case, "
she says.
However, since China tightened restrictions,
no plastic items from the OR
are accepted in single stream, even if it
is taken out before the patient enters
the room.
US companies are working to determine
approaches to operationalize
transportation challenges.
" From what we've been told, there
are vendors who want medical plastic
for recycling, says Farrell. " Uncontaminated
medical plastics have value, but
the trick is in collecting, consolidating,
and marketing those materials, " he
says.
www.ormanager.com
Results-One-year survey: Evaluate effectiveness of changes
The new green recycling
bins in every OR room
are helpful (Total=97)
97%
80%
82%
I find the signage on the
green recycling bin (what
is recyclable and what
is landfill) helpful and
informative (N=97)
I find the signage on
the turquoise reprocessing
bin helpful (N=95)
20%
18%
3%
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Source: Massachusetts General Hospital. Used with permission.
The waste systems vendor that
works with MGH is confident that outlets
and processes for transportation
for the plastics can be found, says Farrell.
It is just a matter of revamping the
program so waste can be collected and
processed efficiently.
Ever-changing list of recyclable
materials
The list of recyclables is ever-changing.
" We are working with our vendor and
our sustainability teams at MGH and
Partners for a viable, working list of recyclables
that can be presented to the
staff. The perioperative staff really want
to recycle and are engaged with the process
for recycling, " says Farrell.
The staff also have focused on reducing
waste on their own. For example,
they no longer automatically open extra
packages of supplies, such as sponges
or sutures that could end up in a landfill.
In
addition, if they need to cover
the patient or create padding or rolls,
they will take a couple of bath blankets
out of the warmer rather than eight to
ten blankets that will not be used and
placed into the laundry, which adds to
the carbon footprint.
After Belanger did a presentation for
Nurses Week in May 2018, other MGH
OR Manager | February 2020 11
nurses contacted her to see what they
could do in their departments to help
reduce waste and improve recycling.
" If I stood up as a nurse manager
and said, 'you will do this and recycle
this,' the initiative would not have
been successful, " says Osgood. " Getting
people who are passionate about
recycling as champions and letting staff
take the lead is what made the initiative
successful. " ✥
-Judith M. Mathias, MA, RN
References
AORN. AORN Position Statement on
Environmental Responsibility. 2014.
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20
Settings/Administrator/My%20Documents/Downloads/PosStat-SafetyEnvironmental-Responsibility.pdf.
Belanger
B, Bouyer-Ferullo S, Osgood
P. Perioperative nursing performance
improvement recycling initiative.
Poster. AORN Global Surgical
Conference & Expo. 2019.
Ivanova I. American cities confront a
" slow-moving recycling crisis. " CBS
News. March 20, 2019. https://
www.cbsnews.com/news/recyclingafter-chinas-plastic-ban-americancities-face-recycling-crisis/.
No

http://https:// http://www.cbsnews.com/news/recycling http://www.ormanager.com

OR Manager - February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of OR Manager - February 2020