Red-Bag Waste Reduction: Improving Sustainable Practices in Local Hospitals - Essay Sample

Introduction

The sustainability initiative chosen is known as the Red-bag Waste Reduction in local hospitals. To form part of a more significant effort in improving sustainable practices, it is found that the local hospitals are generating many regulated medical wastes that are not appropriate. The total regulated medical waste of the hospitals' total waste, according to experts, should account for 8% to 10% (Nabiyouni & Franchetti, 2019). But considering the local hospitals, the regulated medical waste accounts for over 30%, which is very high (Puangmanee & Jearanai, 2019). Thus, there is a need to come up with an aggressive waste reduction strategy to educate those who are concerned with waste disposal.

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The regulated medical waste consists of items that are contaminated with the fluids from the body and can transmit infections like tubing, gauze, suction canisters, drains, and blood-soaked gowns. Since the regulated medical waste should be explicitly treated before it reaches the landfill, usually by autoclaving, the cost of disposal is lower compared to the regular garbage and the energy burden (Nabiyouni & Franchetti, 2019).

The appropriate bag or container that holds waste should be situated in all the areas within the hospital where some particular waste categories may be generated. The instructions on the waste identification and separation should be indicated at every collection point of the waste to remind those who are concerned with the procedures (Weber et al., 2019). The bags or containers containing waste should be removed when they are three-quarters full. The bags should be made of non-halogenated or combustible plastics. In the process of waste reduction, staff should not try to make any corrections on the errors of segregation by placing one bag inside a different bag with different colors or by removing items from the bag. Thus, in case the hazardous waste and general waste are mixed accidentally, the mixture should be regarded as dangerous healthcare wastes (Puangmanee & Jearanai, 2019).

There are some cases whereby red bags are usually misused in hospitals, and the staff sometimes will tend to put small red bags in the drawer in patients' rooms just to be used during an emergency (Nabiyouni & Franchetti, 2019). For example, if paper cups and beer bottles are found in a red bag container inside a hospital, it is self-evident that the patient had partied with some friends inside the hospital. Therefore, the solid waste reduction question from the medical waste stream might be; "if the patient was in good condition to the extent of having visitors for a party inside the hospital, why were the red bags still in the patient's room?" Local hospitals should remove red bag containers from the patient's rooms when they are in good condition because medical wastes are not typically generated there.

Therefore, some of the ways to help in reducing waste in the local hospitals include; Developing the formal plan for waste management - the local hospitals should have a plan on how to manage regulated waste properly (Weber et al., 2019). And the plan goals should be shared with the staff to ensure that no one is left behind. The plan should also be reviewed occasionally for the changes in process or potential policy. The re-usable products should be used when possible rather than using single-use products - some medical instruments and sharp containers can be reused after disinfecting them (Puangmanee & Jearanai, 2019). Thus, local hospitals should check if the products can be recycled before buying. The product manufacturer instructions and the state regulations should be reviewed to see if the product can be reused. They were separating the solid waste collection containers from the red bag waste containers because it is straightforward for any person to drop the items in the wrong container.

For the successful implementation of waste reduction, strategies in local hospitals, top management within hospitals must obtain buy-in and ensure that red bags for wastes are appropriately utilized. Ideally, the initiation project to reduce medical waste should be announced by the chief executive officer of the local hospital and also designating a person in charge to lead the process to be successful. The project needs to be a cross-functional among teams within the hospital who are representing different disciplines responsible for handling medical wastes (Nabiyouni & Franchetti, 2019).

To have a sustainable project of waste reduction within the hospital, the conditions must be recorded and documented at the initial stage when the project is initiated. Thus, before conducting any process to implement the intervention approaches for reducing the medical waste stream, the current waste being generated in the hospital must be measured before the introduction of red bags for waste. If the medical waste has been put off-site and treated, the representative of the purchasing department can have the records of the total amount of medical waste that the hospital has transported for treatment (Weber et al., 2019). But if the medical wastes are treated on-site, the staff of the environmental service department should be measured to identify the total residues which are treated. Therefore, having a better understanding of the total waste that the hospital generates, then it makes it easy to put sustainable measures for waste reduction (Puangmanee & Jearanai, 2019).

References

Nabiyouni, N., & Franchetti, M. J. (2019). Applying Lean Six Sigma methods to improve infectious waste management in hospitals. International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, 11(1), 1-22. https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJSSCA.2019.098706

Puangmanee, S., & Jearanai, M. (2019). Healthcare waste management: A CASE STUDY OF HEALTH-PROMOTING HOSPITALS. Waste Management and the Environment IX, 231, 389.http//doi.org/10.2495/WM180361

Weber, G., Cabras, I., Calaf-Forn, M., Puig-Ventosa, I., & D'Alisa, G. (2019). Promoting Waste Degrowth and Environmental Justice at a Local Level: The Case of Unit-Pricing Schemes in Spain. Ecological economics, 156, 306-317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.09.024