The Right Way to Pitch In

Our new waste reduction specialist has cost-saving and “green” tips for you

Buy “green”

To celebrate Earth Day, waste reduction specialist Linda Zengen teamed wit h Office Max to tell colleagues about products we can buy made from recycled materials, like the folders she is holding. Linda Zengen will visit every unit in the next six months to teach you to discard waste properly. To schedule a visit, call 610-969-4292.

You’re holding a stack of papers that needs to be discarded. A trash can, recycling bin and red-bag waste container sit before you. Which should you choose?

A wrong decision could harm the environment and raise costs. Linda Zengen, our new waste reduction specialist, can help you make the right choice.

“Every year it costs more than $1 million to dispose of our waste,” she says. “If we discard it properly, we’ll save thousands and be environmentally friendly.”

Here’s why. It costs 37 cents per pound to discard red-bag waste, which includes items contaminated with blood or body fluids. It costs 5 cents per pound to discard regular trash. If a cup is thrown in a red bag, costs go up. If contaminated or recyclable items are thrown in the trash, the environment is harmed.

Below are the proper choices, and tips to save money and be “green.”

• Paper
  Soon, each work station will have a recycling bin with a special lid to allow only paper. Protected health information should be discarded here.
• Bottles, cans and glass
  Look for the appropriately marked bin.
• Cardboard
  Remove packing material and place boxes near a bin.
• Cell phones
  To recycle yours, call 610-402-CARE.

Tips:

• Use the back of old documents as scrap paper.
• Save items to your computer instead of printing them.

• Items saturated with blood
  Gloves, gauze, bandages and diapers.
• Chest drainage systems should be double bagged, two per bag.
• Blood bags and tubes
• Human blood and bodily fluids
• IV, chest, drainage, ventilator and oxygen tubing
• Foley catheters
  Specimen containers
  Put glass in sharps containers.

Tips:

• Put needles in sharps containers.
• Block out patients’ names on IV bags before disposal.
• Like at LVH–Muhlenberg, LVH–Cedar Crest soon will have an autoclave. It uses steam to sterilize red-bag waste, so it can be discarded in the trash.

• Paper products
  Tissues, paper towels, packing materials, paper or foam cups and anything that isn’t recyclable.
• Bedpans, urinals and emesis basins
• Urine and glucose strips
• Electrode pads
• Dressings and bandages not saturated with blood or body fluids

Tips:

• Never place a red bag into the regular trash, even if it’s unused.

ARTICLE TOOLS: