New Recycling Project Begins at Southland Hospital

Southland Hospital is doing its bit to reduce landfill as metal and plastic parts from some used clinical equipment is now being recycled. 

Quality and Performance Improvement Facilitator Nicky McNaught, as part of her studies with the Health and Safety Quality Commission, is working on a six-month quality improvement project. 

Already one 240Litre wheelie bin has been filled with electronic clinical waste and the items taken away for recycling. 

Four products were picked for the project to be recycled once they have reached their end of use.  

• Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Machines (used to treat people with sleep apnea) 

• Home Monitors (used for remote monitoring of people with implantable cardiac defibrillators) 

• Oxygen Concentrators (units for people who need oxygen support) 

• Infusion Pumps (used to deliver fluids and medications into a patient) 

The products were selected because there is a reasonable volume of them that are used and turned over. 

The project is using the hospital’s existing waste contractor and it has provided three 240L 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.” 

Given the early days of the project adjustments around processes and how the e-waste is collected is still being fine-tuned. The components may 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,” Nicky says. 

Nicky is working with the hospital’s Diagnostic Department, Clinical Engineering and Orderly Team, and she says their feedback has 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. 

“It is about reducing, reusing, and recycling where it is practical. 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.” 

While the current recycling project has come about because of Nicky’s project, she hopes its benefits could be far reaching and, in the future, expanded to include other sites in the Southern district, and potentially include more products to be recycled.