Hospitals exist to restore people to health but in the process they are making the planet sicker through widespread and systematic waste and pollution, Queensland researchers say.
Healthcare industry practices such as routine use of disposable plastic items and the incineration of waste mean that hospitals churn out disproportionate amounts of garbage and spew tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, according to anaesthetist Dr Kerstin Wyssusek (pictured above) and colleagues at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
Writing in Waste Management and Research they note that operating theatres are among the worst polluters in hospitals due to a high proportion of supplies being single use, disposable and sealed in sterile packaging. With items such as drapes, masks, gloves and tubing being thrown out, it is not unusual for a single operation to generate three large bin bags full of garbage – equivalent to 2300kg of waste per operating room per year.
Operating theatres also consume prodigious amounts of water for scrubbing up and the anaesthetics used are potent greenhouse gases, with one anaesthetist creating the equivalent global warming gases of 1000km of car driving per day.
Hospitals also have a huge carbon footprint because much of the waste is unnecessarily classified as hazardous, requiring it to be incinerated, the authors point out. By one estimate, Australian hospitals generate in excess of 235,000kg or CO2 per day.
“In a world where global warming, climate change, and sustainability are a priority, the healthcare system is lagging behind … it is incumbent upon hospitals to help reduce the environmental impact of their facility,” they write.