Gloves, Masks, and More: Hospitals and Plastic Waste

As I tossed the paper container from my lunch into the bin marked “compost,” I couldn’t help but notice the bright purple disposable gloves. As I hope you know, those are not compostable.

I could have grabbed the gloves and deposited them in the correct bin, but it wouldn’t have done any good. I’m sure there was much more improperly sorted stuff lower down where I couldn’t see it.

I’ve spent far too much time in the hospital this past week. I’m healthy, and I’m not a healthcare worker—I’ve been visiting a family member. Hospitals provide necessary and life-saving care, but they also produce a great deal of plastic waste.

What I saw at the hospital café is the same at other quick-serve restaurants except for the purple gloves. Even when restaurants offer multiple bins, people don’t pay attention. Unfortunately, the janitorial staff often dump everything into a dumpster headed for the landfill.

What would help? Better signage that attracts attention is one idea. Perhaps a bright red stop sign, along with clear directions on what to toss where would do the trick.

Another option for restaurants is to make everything compostable. This is only reasonable in cities with industrial composting that accepts food packaging. Some in the Seattle area—Molly Moon’s ice cream and Taco Time fast food come to mind—already do this.

When it comes to hospitals, however, food service is only a small part of the waste stream. Disposable gloves and other personal protective equipment (PPE) protect both hospital staff and patients. But these products are used for a short time before going into the trash.

The hospital I visited required all visitors to wear hospital-supplied disposable masks. No cloth masks allowed, even if those fit better than the hospital ones. Signs at the café told people to grab a new clean mask after eating.

I don’t know how many boxes of gloves that particular hospital goes through per day, but medical staff seemed to be constantly changing theirs. A market research report from 2020 said that the disposable medical glove market was worth $6 billion in 2019 and nearly doubled in 2020 because of the pandemic.

I understand the need for protection from contact with bodily fluids. But the waste bothers me. Tens of billions of gloves end up in landfills every year. But they don’t have to. Gloves that aren’t contaminated can be recycled.

When I interviewed Jenna Arkin of Earth Friendly Products for my book Material Value, she told me about how her company diverted 95% of its waste away from landfills. For one thing, they chose to buy supplies in containers that could be reused or recycled. The company separated each type of plastic into its own waste stream for cost-effective recycling.

But nitrile gloves posed a problem. Employees at Earth Friendly Products wear the gloves for safe handling of food-grade cleaning products to prevent contamination. With a bit of research, the company found a recycling facility that could collect the used gloves and turn them into park benches.

Hospitals could do something similar if they disposed of uncontaminated gloves in designated containers. That requires changing behavior, but it is possible. Sorting at the source improves recycling rates for many kinds of materials.

Disposable plastic items at hospitals include much more than PPE. Many tools and small medical devices that used to be made from metal and sterilized between patients now come in disposable versions, most of which involve plastic.

Plastic packaging—including blue-tinted plastic film called blue wrap—keeps tools and devices sterile before use in operating rooms. Hospitals go through huge quantities of blue wrap. A 2018 blog post from the nonprofit Practice Greenhealth claims that 225 million pounds is thrown away every year.

A few years ago, I helped write a report about ways to increase blue wrap recycling at hospitals. Blue wrap is made from polypropylene, which is recyclable. That doesn’t mean that recycling it is easy. Sorting and ensuring contamination-free materials is only part of the challenge.

Hospitals need places to store blue wrap while waiting for pickup, assuming they can find a hauler nearby that is willing to take it. Without a local market, collection won’t do any good.

Progress is happening, though. Hospitals can now buy blue wrap made from recycled materials. Companies that make blue wrap are promoting recycling programs. The consulting firm Circular Blu makes reusable tote bags from used, clean blue wrap.

Better recycling alone won’t solve the waste problem. We need to reduce the production of disposable packaging. Many industries can replace disposable items with reusable ones. It might cost more up front but save money in the long run.

In the hospital environment, money is not the only concern. I don’t know enough to say whether going back to washable PPE and sterilizing tools and devices is best for patient and staff safety. But I think it is worth serious consideration.