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Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities
Resources for Environmentally Responsible Medical Waste Management

Stericycle incinerator stacks at Haw River, NC, 2001. Photo by Lou Zeller
"Healthcare facilities often spend more than is necessary to treat medical waste that is not defined as regulated. This increases the cost of healthcare and wastes resources."  
Source: NC DENR

"Some hospitals have taken steps to reduce their use of potentially toxic materials and to decrease the total volume of incinerator waste. A waste reduction program at the Fletcher-Allen Health Care System in Vermont reduced the volume of regulated medical waste at one campus by 75% in a few months. Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City saves $600,000 per year through improved waste management systems. There is thus potential for medical facilities to decrease the need for incineration while also saving costs." Source: Sustainable Hospitals

Resources for environmentally responsible medical waste management practices (below) that show it is possible to keep incineration to the bare minimum:

 

"What is the right thing? Simply put, it is the elimination of all incineration of medical waste not required by law to be burned." Martha Hamblin, GASP, at Stericyle Annual Stockholder Meeting