F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 3
T
he waste generated by an operating room is staggering — and
ours is no exception. When our facility-wide Green Team
brainstormed about how to increase recycling in the OR, we
realized the key to success was two-fold: Make it easy for the surgical
team and don't make it hard on another department. We now place a
blue bin for plastic, metal and glass, and a green bin for cardboard
and paper in each OR. Instructions and pictures posted on the wall
above the containers help to make sure staff place items into the
appropriate container. The convenient placement of the bins made it
easy for the team to get on board with recycling efforts and no one
outside of the OR had to separate the materials, which is required for
pickup.
Carlos Garcia, AAS
Manhattan Surgery Center
GREENING THE OR
Segregate Waste at the Point of Use
• COLOR CODED Certified Surgical Technician Carlos Garcia designed a recycling system that made it easy for members of the
OR team to reduce their red bag waste by 25% in just a few months.
Manhattan
Surgery
Center
New York, N.Y.
cgarcia@manhattansc.com
