Recycling Comes to Medical Equipment

In 1998, the American Hospital Association and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began a partnership aimed at reducing the volume of waste in hospitals 50% by 2010. Noted in an article in the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation's (www.aami.org) journal, Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, there is a strong upswing in the recycling of medical equipment.

Pointed out is the trend for hospitals and health care facilities to adopt waste policies, including such things as recycling, reuse through donation, reprocessing, refurbishing and reselling. Driving forces behind these initiatives are both budgetary and environ-mental.

Cited are instances of transfers of supplies to developing countries through nonprofit orga-nizations. For example, Jim Loeffler, medical equipment procurement manager for International Aid, a relief and development agency, says, "We take our advanced healthcare system for granted. It is truly remarkable how the donation of even one simple medical device can improve the level of healthcare to thousands of needy people in developing nations."