Sharpsmart Spotlight: Sumal Karunaratne

From the serene tranquillity of camping out in the wild to the intensely charged atmosphere of punk rock gigs, who can straddle the line between the two extremes?

We want to take a moment to shine the spotlight on Sharpsmart’s customer-turned-team member, our Total Waste Programme Manager, Sumal Karunaratne.

Who Is Sharpsmart’s Total Waste Programme Manager?

When Sumal joined the Sharpsmart team, we only provided a reusable sharps container service and most of our in-house departments didn’t exist. But what Sumal did notice was a company with strong values and a unique vision for the future of healthcare waste.

Coming from the perspective of a Sharpsmart customer working as a Waste Manager within the NHS, Sumal’s journey has also been unique. He witnessed the culture, people, and company values before working here and joined with an understanding of how the business was seen from the outside.

No two days are ever truly the same for Sumal, he could be involved in a balanced blend between customer meetings and project updates, conducting duty of care visits with customers, or even working with suppliers and the wider team on consultancy and service procedures.

In any case, Sumal finds fulfilment in his work and the variety each day brings.

In his time with Sharpsmart, Sumal has witnessed the growth of the company to a point far beyond where it was when he started, and without sacrificing any of the values that drew him in in the first place as a customer, and then later as a team member.

When he’s not waxing lyrical about new waste technologies and industry developments, Sumal enjoys getting out into the wild for some survivalist camping or getting wild with some live music.

But that’s enough from us, now that you have an idea of who Sumal Karunaratne is, let’s hear about his Sharpsmart experience directly from him…

What do you enjoy most about working for Sharpsmart?

The flexibility to innovate and not be confined within a fixed structure. I’ve previously worked for companies that wanted innovation but didn’t want to allow people to try new things and risk making mistakes – having the opportunity to drive for new technologies and excellence is great.

What do you like to do for fun?

I’m a massive football fan and Tottenham supporter, I love watching every game and getting to as many as I can in person. I also go to a few gigs throughout the year with my wife who loves punk and rock music – she also sings on open mic nights so we attend a few of those each year as well.

What were your first impressions of Sharpsmart?

I immediately saw the passion and the energy of the senior leadership team and their commitment to the business and its growth which I found exciting from day one and knew this would be an exciting company to be a part of.

What’s the most fulfilling thing you’ve done with Sharpsmart?

Supporting the NHS throughout the COVID-19 pandemic was massively fulfilling. I remember when the Nightingale project first came about as a top-secret project and we were called in to help plan how the waste operation would work – it was a huge lift and to show what we could and would do as a business and focus our teams to support and deliver that project was fantastic.

It was also quite surreal to know the country was all in lockdown and we were out there working alongside the military with Sharpsmart trucks pulling up to site and military chinooks landing in the background, it was like being on a movie set.

Although the Nightingale project didn’t end up going ahead as initially planned, our pandemic support for our customers went above and beyond and being able to serve the NHS as well as we did felt incredibly rewarding.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve been asked to do whilst on the job?

Going to go back to my NHS days, I once had to attempt to rescue a fox that had fallen into theatres recovery. That was a long night…

What does growth look like for you?

For me there’s already been a massive evolution of my role within the business over the years. I initially came in to manage our Total Waste Management (TWM) contract with Royal Free Hospital, it was our first contract of its kind and a new era for the business.

Five years later, we’ve now got several TWM contracts and our consultancy service has been naturally born from that to drive projects forward for customers and support them further in achieving their goals.

The business has grown rapidly over the past few years and we’re focused on customer retention as much as new business with our unique offerings that come through with our consultancy.

We’re able to provide our customers with tools to drive their objectives forward and we have a marketing team dedicated to the creation of educational materials such as posters, labels, videos, quizzes and more. We’ve also got dashboards that highlight accurate customer data and our audits keep everything ticking along.

Our rate of growth as a business is amazing and we’re in this for the long term so I’m looking forward to seeing even more growth, especially within the consultancy side of what we offer.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned over your career?

Everything can be boiled down to perception versus perspective – don’t just look at things from your own point of view, put yourself in the shoes of others and understand their needs.

How would you describe the culture at Sharpsmart?

The culture at Sharpsmart is great, it’s a hard-working culture but everyone is so friendly. It’s been enjoyable to see the business grow from where we were to where we are now and see how that culture has remained intact.

It can be difficult for a business to scale and keep its culture but at Sharpsmart, it comes from the top and filters down, we have a great senior leadership team who are passionate and dedicated to our company vision and values.

If you could dispel one myth about the healthcare waste industry, what would that be?

That as a business we’d want to treat your waste at the highest rate of cost and send it for high-temperature incineration.

This isn’t the case, firstly, we don’t even have incinerators at our Sharpsmart plants and have aligned our entire business from our resources and plants to our transport fleets to help our customers achieve and exceed the 20-20-60 waste split, with a higher volume of offensive waste.

We even developed an alternative treatment method for medicinally contaminated sharps waste (our patented Effluent Retention Treatment) to make sharps waste treatment more sustainable and cost-effective.

What advice would you give someone looking for a career with Sharpsmart?

Think big!

There are always opportunities to progress within the business, look at where you are now and picture where you want to be in the next 3-5 years and that opportunity will arise.

When I started five years ago, we had no in-house HR team, no marketing team, and no IT – in that short amount of time we’ve grown and developed entire departments.

If you think big and set a goal for yourself, you can progress and grow and have the opportunity to lay your stamp on something special.

If you were abandoned on a desert island, which three Sharpsmart colleagues would you want with you?

Rob Green. He’s a bit of a genius and he’s very practical in what he can do. He also goes biking and camping a lot so he’s the sort of person who would be well prepared for a desert island and could get us water and a fire going pretty quickly.

Duane Mathurin, I’m not sure how much help he’ll give us on an island but he’s a transport guy and he’s never let me down so hopefully he’d find a way to transport us off of the island.

Jammie Dickens, he’s a 6’5” monster and if anything was going to attack us he’ll be able to protect us. He’s also pretty useful and can get anything done operationally so he can sort out any problems.

I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be doing whilst on the island…

Bonus Question: What title would you give a book about your life?

Bandages to Bin Bags: My Life in the NHS and the Glamorous World of Waste

Join Our Pride!

Are you currently considering an exciting new career with an innovative company that gives you a platform for growth and development?

If you are, and you’d also like to be a part of making healthcare safer and more sustainable, you’ll fit in nicely with the Sharpsmart pride.