Sharpsmart: Impact on Life-Cycle Carbon Footprint
Authors: T Grimmond, A Bright, J Cadman, J Dixon, S Ludditt, C Robinson, C Topping
Publication: British Medical Journal Open, BMJ Open 2021 https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/9/e046200.info
Summary:
What is the study?
The study investigated the National Health Service England’s (NHS) 2020 commitment to being the world’s first ‘net zero’ NHS through, “…reducing waste, unnecessary plastics, and single-use items”.
The article compared the impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, plastic manufactured and cardboard used, of 40 acute NHS Trust hospitals converting from single-use sharps containers to reusable sharps containers.
What did we learn?
In the 12 months following conversion to reusable sharps containers, the combined results for the 40 Trusts were:
- GWP reduction of 3,267.4 tonnes of CO2e (-83.9%).
- Elimination of incineration of 900.8 tonnes of plastic.
- Elimination of disposal/recycling of 132.5 tonnes of cardboard.
- Elimination of manufacture of 1.7 million single-use sharps containers
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A 61.1% reduction in labour required for sharps container exchanges.
'Adopting reusable sharps containers is an example of a sustainable purchasing decision that can assist trusts in meeting NHS greenhouse gas reduction targets and can reduce global warming potential permanently with minimal staff behavioural change.'
Authors