Southland Hospital has announced a new project to help reduce landfill waste.
Metal and plastic waste from used clinical equipment at the hospital will now be recycled.
Quality and performance improvement facilitator Nicky McNaught is working on a six-month quality-improvement project as part of her studies with the Health and Safety Quality Commission.
Already one 240-litre wheelie bin has been filled with clinical electronic waste, and the items have been taken away for recycling.
Four products are being picked for recycling once they have reached the end of their use: continuous positive airway pressure machines, home monitors, oxygen concentrators and infusion pumps.
The project will use the hospital’s existing waste contractor and it has provided three 240-litre wheelie bins specifically for the project.
"We are still in the very early stages but in the past two weeks we’ve filled our first wheelie bin to go away for products to be broken down into metal and plastic components to start the recycling process," Mrs McNaught said.
Given the early days of the project and the complex materials involved, the recycling initiative would continue to be fine-tuned to find the best process.
The components might end up being recycled to be repurposed into many different plastic and metal products in the future.
"We want to make it easy for everyone to do the right thing."
Mrs McNaught is working with the hospital’s diagnostic department, clinical engineering and orderly teams, and said their feedback had been very supportive and encouraging.
"My hope is that once my project is finished the teams will be able to self-manage this and it will become a self-sustaining recycling project.
"I like to think we can create a change in how we operate because the health sector does create a lot of waste and we need to start thinking about the impact that has."
