MEDICAL WASTE PLASTIC REDUCTION
In 2003, EHS purchased and installed a large autoclave and shredder unit at the Yale School of Medicine. Instead of transporting all of Yale's medical waste off site for processing or incineration, Yale can now safely process medical waste on campus through autoclaving and then shredding to render unrecognizable. The waste is then mixed with other normal solid waste generated at the medical school. This has resulted in benefits for reduction of long term liability of this waste stream as well as the reduction of plastic medical waste containers once used for collection and autoclaving at the laboratory level. These buckets have been replaced by cardboard box units. Reduction of plastic in the medical waste stream has been reduced 70% through this program. In addition to the reduction of plastic usage, the laboratories now do not need to autoclave BL1 and most BL2 waste streams at a local level. This has reduced autoclave usage and energy consumption.
