An Audit of Recyclable and Contaminated Waste From Invasive Cardiac Procedures

Waste generation from health care facilities is significant. Quantifying and minimizing waste from cardiac catheterization laboratories (CCL) and cardiac operating theaters (COT) has received little attention in an effort to lessen its environmental impact. The purpose of this study was to assess the quantity of contaminated and recyclable waste resulting from invasive cardiac procedures.

To assess the potential impact of recycling, quantify the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, and determine how much contaminated material needs to be managed, we audited the amount of hazardous and nonhazardous medical waste produced from CCL and COT in our cardiac center.

Every year, our cardiac center performs 350 cardiac surgeries and 2900 interventional cases. We estimated that annually 11,000 kg of recyclable waste and 30,000 kg of contaminated waste are generated. If this is extrapolated to all the CCL and COT globally, the anticipated annual waste production from invasive cardiac procedures is 150 million kg (150,000 metric tons).

Cardiologists and cardiac surgeons must embrace sustainability as a critical need and join the effort to prevent global warming. One tiny action that each of us can take to improve the environment is to try to decrease waste while encouraging recycling.