Biopsy on DHB’s waste mountain
In the muggy basement of Wellington Hospital, between the pipes and the plumbing, two people in contamination suits have been sorting through mountains of rubbish.
Syringes and human offcuts, or related gore, are nowhere in sight as bags of general rubbish are slung on to a sorting table in an effort by the capital’s district health board to address its waste.
‘‘There are no body parts ... and there’s no way we should be dealing with anything that’s soaked,’’ according to Thom Adams, lead educator for the Sustainability Trust.
These things are a health hazard and must be shipped off to Brisbane in refrigerated containers and destroyed in an incinerator, under order of the Environmental Protection Authority.
Capital & Coast DHB (CCDHB) generates between 4000 and 5000 kilograms of waste every day. That includes biohazardous materials, recyclable materials and general waste.
Valentino Luna, the health board’s sustainability officer, said a lot of hospital waste was subject to health and safety protocols and could not be helped. But there could be room for improvement around recycling packaging, or dealing with food waste.
This audit marks the first time the health board has done a stocktake of its waste. Adams and his co-worker, DeepaRose Sealy, have been underground at the hospital for six days.
For surgeons dealing with critical situations, it is understandable if their first priority is not taking a moment to recycle,’’ Luna said.
‘‘We have a workforce that is here to look after people’s health. They are very time poor ... [for example] the emergency department - trying to deal with life or death situations - getting into their habits to recycle, it takes a bit of time,’’ he said. ‘‘Making the default to recycle instead of throwing something away - it’s a
"There's a very dedicated pool of nurses who want to [recycle]." Valentino Luna, Capital & Coast DHB's sustainability officer
behaviour change.’’
Two months ago the health board began recycling plastic bags from intravenous treatments, such as saline, glucose and iron. They were being trucked to Otaki and recycled into equipment used in children’s playgrounds, Luna said.
The board goes through about 300,000 of these bags a year. About 500kg of plastic has been diverted from landfill already.
‘‘Surprisingly, the biggest uptake of this is in [the] ED and intensive care unit. So high stress situations, but there’s a very dedicated pool of nurses who want to do it,’’ Luna said.
The Sustainability Trust will give the health board a report on what it has found, then it is up to the board to decide what steps to take.
The Trust has also done waste audits for Wellington Chocolate Factory, Victoria University and Rimutaka Prison – all of which are making efforts to catalogue their waste habits.