Medical waste generated by dialysis centers , hospitals, clinics

[hatedialysis2]

I am a homehemo dialyzer since 2013 and wished for years there was some way to reduce the amount of waste generated by my dialysis treatments.    I came accross this site that offers medical waste treatment machines.   If only my center offered it, I would gladly bring my used cartridges during my monthly visits.  I doubt that they would invest in such a machine as they are always looking for ways to cut back and they are stingy with monthly ancilliary supplies as it is.     Any thoughts?   Here is the link for one of the waste treatment machines I came accross, there are others is you search:

http://www.sterimedsystems.com/why_us.html

[Charlie B53]

Pretty neat system, cuts, grinds, shreds, sterilizes into small particles in a  convenient bag that gets tossed into the regular trash instead of being sent off as hasmat.

Wonder what the cost is and how long the payback would be for most clinics?

I may have to forward the link to my Nurse, see if she will send it on to administration.  If there is enough of a savings I don't see why more clinics wouldn't take advantage of it.  Unless the initial expense is too much for an individual clinic to bear.

[Simon Dog]

The ultimate way to save on medical waster is re-use, which used to be common.   Line sets were re-used several times, and dialysis filters were "reprocessed" and used until they lost about 20% of their filtration ability.  The recent trend has been against re-use (phew!!!)

There have been some pilot programs recycling the filters (not re-use, recycling the plastic),

[hatedialysis2]

I am going to call the companies that produce these machines to find out how much they cost.  The ROI cost benefit analysis on the previous link  shows costs of 11-13 cents per pound of waste versus 24 cents upto $1 per pound for wast handlers.   This might be a way for those centers who are crying they dont make money to maybe cut down and reduce their carbon foot print as opposed to looking for ways to short change dialysis patients and giving them inferior quality of care.

[hatedialysis2]

As passionate as I am about doing my part for the environment, I would not consider re-using  medical supplies.  Too risky!   Also the cost of recycling them would require man power and that tends to be more expensive and would leave lots of room for dangerous mistakes.  Search for infections caused by use of surgical instruments, pretty scary.

[Simon Dog]

Also the cost of recycling them would require man power

Recycling and Reuse are totally different.  Recycling is destroying the used product to allow use of the raw materials in other products (generally of a lower grade than the recycled material, except for aluminum and some other metals).   My Dog's water bowl is recycled glass, and cardboard/newsprint often has a recycled component.   Recycle==good, Reuse==bad.

The "manpower" issue may or may not tbe accurante whe it comes to re-use of dialysis filters - there are actually machines to automate the process.  But, re-use has fallen out of favor here in the US.   Also, re-use was always on the same patient, and the filter was labeled with the person on whom it was to be re-used.   That being said, I once had labs reported that were never drawn .... and my doc mentioned there was another patient at the clinic with a similar last name.

As to re-use of surgical instruments - even autoclaving cannot destroy the CJD prion, do you want all NEW instruments if you have brain surgery.

[kristina]

As passionate as I am about doing my part for the environment, I would not consider re-using  medical supplies.  Too risky!   Also the cost of recycling them would require man power and that tends to be more expensive and would leave lots of room for dangerous mistakes.  Search for infections caused by use of surgical instruments, pretty scary.

Thank you for mentioning it!
Medical staff at dialysis-centers use new material each and every time
to cut down on possible dangers of infection.

[Charlie B53]

O PD at home I have LOTS of used bags and hoses daily.  I have yet to find any place anywhere near that recycles these plastics.  Soda bottles and most the other plastics commonly tossed out in the trash.  But the 'medical' plastics, nada.  Such a waste.   I don't doubt someone could shred this stuff, sterilize it with a rinse then either melt it or desolve it in a solvent to reclaim it for re-use safely.

Just my waste would fill a 35 gal garbage bag in a week.  Multiply that by   It could add up to be a worthwhile measure if one could organize a half efficient method of collection.