Sustainable Waste Management in Orthopedic Healthcare Services

Abstract

It is estimated that globally medical surgical specialties, including orthopedics, produce large amounts of hospital waste. However, the possibilities of recycling materials are not well highlighted. Orthopedic hospitals can collect larger volumes of recyclables that could be kept out of landfills. The general objective of this study is to identify the categories and related amounts of waste and recyclable materials produced by the main types of medical interventions in orthopedics. The specific objective is to evaluate the amounts of waste produced in the preoperative and intraoperative periods, but also their recycling potential. For one month, we analyzed eight types of orthopedic medical interventions, of which five were surgical and three were nonsurgical. These were performed at the County Emergency Clinical Hospital of Targu Mures in Romania. For surgical interventions, the waste was collected separately in the preoperative and intraoperative periods. Waste was divided into recyclable, nonrecyclable, and biological categories. The waste bags were weighed with a portable scale. The main results are the average amounts of recyclable waste produced per case in the eight types of medical interventions. The secondary results show the average amounts per case of nonrecyclable, biological, and total waste. To test for statistically significant differences between the types of medical interventions, we performed an analysis of variance. Seventy-four cases were included in the study. An amount of 466.2 kg of waste was collected, with an average mass of 6.3 kg per case. During the preoperative period, 130.3 kg of waste was produced, of which 78% was recyclable. During the intraoperative period, 303.8 kg of waste was produced and only 11% was recyclable. Trauma surgery produced the largest amount of waste, followed by arthroplasty. A quarter of orthopedic waste is recyclable, and the greatest potential for recycling is preoperative waste, which can be effectively recycled at three-quarters. Through effective recycling programs, the ecological footprint of orthopedic–traumatology interventions can be reduced.