ShawneeDispatch.com

As part of Shawnee Mission Medical Center's initiative to identify items within the hospital that can be reused or recycled, it has begun recycling blue wrap, a No. 5 plastic that is used as sterilization wrap for surgical instruments.

It is estimated that the Merriam hospital uses 81,000 sheets of blue wrap per year, crowding landfills with this high-volume, low-weight item that takes 700 years to begin decomposing. Several hospital departments participated in a blue wrap recycling trial July 7-28, and 300 pounds of blue wrap were reclaimed. It is estimated Shawnee Mission could recycle 8,000 pounds of wrap annually.

When recycled, blue wrap is melted, turned into pellets and used to make other plastic products. Based on the results of the trial, Shawnee Mission plans to launch a permanent blue wrap recycling program and will share its initiative with other Kansas City area hospitals in hopes that they, too, begin a program.

In addition to the new blue wrap recycling program, Shawnee Mission practices a number of additional initiatives to protect the health of the environment. Its Green Team, established in October 2007 by hospital associates, meets monthly and creates plans to reduce the hospital's impact on the environment by encouraging recycling initiatives, changing utilization of certain products and providing education for staff.

Other initiatives currently in-use by the hospital include:

¢ Recycling of cardboard, aluminum, plastic, magazines, phone books, paper, paint and thinner waste, mercury and X-ray film.

¢ Use of low-mercury bulbs throughout the hospital and movement toward compact fluorescent bulbs with remodel and new construction projects.

¢ Low-flush toilets in new and remodeled areas.

¢ Grease from the cafeteria is sold to companies and used in composting; vegetable scraps from the cafeteria are donated to a local farmer for livestock feed.