“Listen to your customers. Everybody is looking to cut costs, remove inefficiencies, and do the right thing. They’re pursuing sustainability initiatives and they have ideas.” Bob Winskowicz and Jeff Bell from the medical waste processing device company Sterilis discuss product design for the circular economy.
Healthcare
Medline saw a 46 percent reduction in pickups, translating into a $27,000 annual reduction in hauling charges for one compactor alone.
A partnership between Underwriters Laboratories and Greenhealth Exchange aims to help health care companies realize financial and EHS benefits by sourcing safer and healthier products and services.
As the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry grows, its waste generated grows, too — as does the market for medical waste management.
To address low recycling rates and increase the amount of healthcare plastics managed in a circular economy approach, the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council and the Plastics Industry Association launched a multi-hospital plastics recycling project in the Chicago area.
To address a disconnect between rigorous federal hazardous waste rules and their real-world use, the EPA has proposed a Retail Strategy to help companies in the retail sector better identify and manage hazardous waste.
Medical waste — more than 5.4 tons per year for an average operating room — costs each operating room about $5,243, according to the 2015 Practice Greenhealth Sustainability Benchmark Report. A partnership between Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon, which manufacturers surgical devices and and Intermountain Healthcare is tackling this issue, … Read more »
New hazardous waste rules will limit retailers’ ability to recycle or reuse unsold consumer products and pharmaceuticals and could cost retailers millions — if not billions — annually, according to a handful of trade associations. The EPA proposed the waste management regulations in September in an attempt to protect waterways and … Read more »
The carbon divestment trend seemed to be slowing with Microsoft founder Bill Gates labeling divestment “a false solution” and universities with major endowments including Harvard and MIT resisting pressure from activists and deciding not to divest. But then last week at COP21, 350.org and Divest-Invest, two organizations coordinating the fossil … Read more »
In just a few weeks, negotiators from nearly every country in the world will gather at a sprawling airfield outside Paris to secure a new international agreement on climate change. The goal of the Paris gathering – known as the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United … Read more »
General Electric unveiled Predix.io, a dedicated cloud environment for app developers aimed at tapping into the $225 billion industrial Internet of Things market. According to the company, Predix.io will create the world’s largest app marketplace for industry. GE is converging all software offerings on Predix and commercializing Predix-based operations to … Read more »
In an effort to reduce its carbon footprint across its value chain, global healthcare company GSK has set up the GSK Supplier Exchange. The initiative, which aims to reduce GSK’s carbon footprint by 25 percent by 2020, against a 2010 baseline, asks more than 500 of its suppliers to its … Read more »
