An audit of potentially recyclable waste from anaesthetic practice

Abstract

Little is known about the amount of anaesthesia waste that is recyclable. We tested the hypotheses: 1) that anaesthetists produce a small proportion (30%) is recyclable and 3) that there is little (<10%) cross-contamination of infectious and non-infectious waste. For five weekdays in a metropolitan hospital with six operating theatres, we weighed waste and determined the proportion of anaesthesia waste that was recyclable. Waste was routinely divided into general and infectious streams. For safety reasons the infectious waste was considered unavailable for recycling, leaving the general waste as potentially recyclable. Anaesthesia waste (90 kg) was 25% (95% confidence interval: 22 to 29%) of..