Why Use Reusable Sharps Containers Instead of Single-Use
Never again should your healthcare institution buy a sharps container that is just intended for a single patient’s usage? Reusable dental and clinical waste containers remove the need to buy and dispose of single-use sharps containers. This not only results in instant financial savings but also demonstrates a great deal of care for the environment! A reusable container eliminates the need to burn 33% of the capacity of each sharps container. Which is plastic that would otherwise be incinerate. Let’s find out more about why reusable sharp containers are better than single-use disposable ones.
Reusable Sharps Containers Provide A Solution That Is Risk-Free, Compliant, And Cost-Effective
Not only are there considerable advantages for the environment. When using reusable systems but there are also significant impacts on patient safety and clinical efficiency when doing so.
- Contamination and injuries caused by sharp objects are no longer a concern thanks to an innovative, well-engineered safety design that has tamper-proof security locks, an overfill prevention mechanism, and a protective safety tray.
- Larger containers for dental waste disposal cut down on the number of times they need to be collected, which in turn lowers the expenses involved with disposing of sharps by 30%.
- You save money that would have been spent on obtaining and disposing of plastic containers for sharps.
- No bags, no outside packing, no assembly. This system is authorise by the United Nations and has been test following ISO standard 23907-2:2019. It also has a watertight closure that prevents leaking.
- Accessories make it possible to safely dispose of sharps by mounting the containers on a wall or workshop or moving them on a simple access cart to a patient’s bedside, an ANTT workstation, or a point-of-use workstation.
- There are reusable sharps containers available in the market. Which undergo a six-stage process of decontamination and sanitation while being clean by robots. The end result is a container that is cleaner than one that has just been manufacture.
What about the effect on the surrounding ecosystem?
When a container that may be reuse is empty, just the waste that is containe inside it is burning. Which has a less negative effect on the environment than when wasted plastic is sent to be incinerat. A rigorous robotic washing process is use to clean reusable containers hygienically. This process achieves the most significant bacterial load reduction in the industry. And after the container has been subjected to a quality control check. It is then sent back to the hospital or other facility to be used again. Research that was conducted at a hospital in the UK in 2010 revealed a decrease in carbon emission levels of 86% as a result of the deployment of the reusable system. Each year, the reusable sharps container will provide the following for every 100 occupied beds:
- Reduces the amount of discarded plastic from dental waste by 3,175 kg
- Reduces waste of cardboard by 326 kg
- Eliminates the need for the production of 4,691 single-use sharps containers as well as their disposal in landfills
Due to the extensive process of decontamination, cleaning, and energy required to repurpose materials, recycling may hurt the environment, even though the idea of recycling itself is very “environmentally friendly.” The recycling process is not as straightforward as it may first appear. And it may also lead to an adverse environmental impact. A disposable container has double the negative effect on the environment as compared to a non-disposable container. Since it not only contributes to the volume of waste that must be treat with energy but also increases the amount of waste that must be burn. In addition, every single container for disposable sharps that are use necessitates the production of a brand new container as a replacement for it. This procedure necessitates a whole new allocation of resources for both the materials and the energy that are require.
Reusable Versus Disposable sharps containers
Although the effect on the environment is a significant argument against the usage of disposable sharps containers, the safety argument is far more persuasive. The plain and simple reality is that no firm can afford to put as much technology as is now available into a throwaway sharps container and then toss it away because doing so would prevent them from being able to provide prices that are comparable with those of their competitors.
In 1986, when advanced containers first entered the market for use in the healthcare business. There was no other option for reusable sharps containers. Needlestick injuries were commonplace in hospitals all over the globe, and recent discoveries about the transmission of HIV and other bloodborne diseases from used needles sparked a new discourse over the safety of injections and the disposal of sharps.
The containers themselves were the root cause of a considerable number of injuries from sharps and cytotoxic waste, which is a fact that should not come as a surprise given the poor design and fragile construction of the sharps containers that were available for purchase on the market at the time.
Containers for sharps that place an emphasis on safety first
Reusable sharps containers are develop with 13 different safety elements. And they stand in market solidarity with various peer-reviewed studies and record. The remarkable decrease in needlestick injuries that have been accomplish in six different nations.
According to the findings of research that evaluated 28 hospitals, 14 of the facilities had switched to reusable containers for the disposal of sharps while the other 14 had continued to utilise disposable sharps containers. The findings revealed that the number of sharp injuries had increased in the 14 hospitals that had been using disposable containers. However, in the controlled group that had switched to the reusable system. The number of sharps injuries associated with disposal had decreased by 57%. And those associated with the container had decreased by 81%.
Therefore, there is no rivalry between reusable sharps containers and disposable sharps containers when it comes to containing sharp objects. Reusable containers are the best option for any healthcare establishment such as dental waste management to take into consideration from both a safety and an environmental sustainability standpoint. Get in touch with Trikon Clinical Waste to know more.