AB194. SOH21AS246. Theatre and the environmental impact: if you don’t measure it can’t be managed

Background: The environmental impact of healthcare is estimated to be 5% of the total global impact and up to 10% in certain countries. The Green Healthcare programme in Ireland has published aims on its website to recycle 70% of the packaging waste and reduce waste sent to landfill by 10% by 2035. Currently the national average of recycled waste from hospitals is 11%

Methods: We commenced a waste analysis project to assess the carbon footprint of our theatres. We measured the amount of waste which could potentially be recycled and performed an economic analysis on this data to calculate projected cost benefit. Pilot analysis split waste into three categories-recyclable, landfill and healthcare risk. Cases included ranged from minor to major complex including robotic procedures.

Results: Waste destined for the incinerator was excluded. Pilot data showed that recyclable waste per case ranged from 400 g to 2 kg, which represents up to 50% of waste that would have otherwise been destined for landfill.

Conclusions: Significant environmental and monetary savings are possible and recycling in theatre has been shown to be feasible in other hospitals. This does however require engagement from all staff and hospital administration. Further analysis is required to quantify the monetary cost to introduce a recycling programme and to determine optimum pathways for waste disposal in the theatre setting.

Keywords: Cost analysis; environment; recycling; sustainability; theatre