October 19th, 2009 · No Comments

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

With over 5,000 hospitals and health care facilities in the United States, a lot of waste is generated. We often think the waste is necessary for obvious sanitation reasons, but perhaps it is not necessary, in every case.

Stericycle reusable container

Stericycle, Inc. has taken up the cause of helping hospitals reduce the amount of waste going into landfills. The Illinois-based company just launched its Carbon Footprint Estimator, a tool that allows a hospital to calculate its environmental impact.

Stericycle, Inc., reports that its own green contribution is helping  hospitals reduce on packaging with the company’s  Bio Systems reusable sharps containers. These plastic storage bins for medical waste, such as needles, can be cleaned, disinfected and re-used.

When compared with cardboard alternatives, one reusable container has the life-span equal to 600 disposable containers, according to Kellee Johnson with The Ballast Group.

“To date [since 1986], Stericycle’s reusable “sharps program” has kept more than 72 million disposable containers out of landfills, while preventing 123 million pounds of carbon from being expelled into the atmosphere and 6.3 million gallons of gas from being burned; the equivalent of a 25-mpg car driving around the Earth ten times,” says Stericycle’s website.

Stericycle also properly disposes of prescriptions for doctors. This type of system keeps hazardous waste out of area lakes and streams.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media