Giving hospital textile waste a next life
Hospitals generate a lot of waste. Textiles such as bed curtains and gowns are just some examples that end up in rubbish sites.
Hospital gowns and bed curtains currently end up in landfill. Credit: AdobeStock
According to Circular Australia – an organisation working to accelerate Australia's transition to a circular economy – public health services in NSW generate 52,400 tonnes of waste each year.
This amount weighs as much as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and costs the NSW Government over $16 million a year to manage.
A NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) co-design workshop held in Newcastle last week aimed to better understand the barriers and opportunities to introducing circularity to the textile waste generated by hospitals.
NSSN Industrial Futures Theme Leader Dr Sam Ashby (L) at the workshop (R).
“We are examining how these textiles from hospitals can be reprocessed to have a ‘next life’,” NSSN Industrial Futures Theme Leader Dr Sam Ashby says.
“For example, this waste can be made into tiles and carpet underlay, cellulose pellets and polymer that can be made into other things. We want to explore how smart sensing can help with at different stages of the process from waste to next life.”
The workshop was held one year on from the NSSN Circular Economy Conference on textiles which was also held in Newcastle.
Circular Economy Project Leader from think tank Hunter Joint Organisation, Stephanie Reilly, described another successful event on textiles in the circular economy the organisation hosted in Newcastle in June.
Co-Founder and CEO of Utilitarian World, Tim Lee (L) and Managing Director of Cardinal Health ANZ, Jane Crowe (R).
Co-Founder and CEO of circular economy platform Utilitarian World, Tim Lee, detailed the magnitude of the problem of contamination and separation of waste streams through his extensive experience in healthcare and waste management.
Managing Director of Cardinal Health ANZ, Jane Crowe told participants how Cardinal Health is extending the life of compression bandages by reusing them and recording how many times they have been reused before discarding them.
“Circularity is a new concept and it really is about how to design-out waste,” Dr Ashby says.
“What we wanted to do at the workshop is better understand the processes that are currently in use in the life cycle of hospital textile waste: from the time it is discarded to the time it is reprocessed (if it is not being reused) into a new product with a new life.
“We then wanted to identify where the opportunities are for smart sensing to facilitate the process.
“We want to identify what hospital textile can be repurposed, how to transport it, where to take it and what can it be turned into.
“For example, sorting and material identification are critical to an efficient system.”
More than 30 participants attended the co-design workshop, including representatives from University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Local Health District, Hunter Joint Organisation, UNSW, Resourceful Living, PEGRAS and Binary Tech.
Participants will work with the NSSN on the interesting ideas that were uncovered at the workshop to form projects which can then be used to apply for funding.
For more details contact Dr Sam Ashby on sam.ashby@nssn.org.au.