Friday 6 December 2019

Stryker’s initiative keeps single-use medical devices out of landfill

Customers of medical technology company Stryker have helped save hundreds of millions of dollars in supply costs and diverted waste from landfill through an initiative to collect single-use devices (SUDs).

They collectively saved around $340 million (£259m) and helped divert 13.2 million pounds of waste from landfill in 2018 through the company’s SUD reprocessing programme.

More than 782,000 pulse oximetry devices were collected in total last year – a 22% increase from 2018.

More than 450 hospitals participated in the ‘Pulse Ox for the Planet’ programme, which offered donations to the National Forest Foundation (NFF) as an incentive for increasing SUD collection rates.

Stryker’s Sustainability Solutions divisions donated more than 9,000 trees in 2018 to the Coconino National Forest in Arizona following the customer collection efforts.

Newly-added categories include pressure infusion bags, fall alarms, ECG leads and cables and the Sage Prevalon mobile air transfer system, with each participating facility able to earn up to 150 planted trees in 2019.

Erin Broeske, Senior Director of Marketing at Stryker’s Sustainability Solutions division said: “Reprocessing programmes deliver immense value to US hospitals but maximising the benefit day-in and day-out starts with device collections.

“Engaged hospital staff are key to growing device collections and this programme shows the tangible value of their commitment to getting more devices in the bins. This programme boosts the greater environmental mission of reprocessing.”