Waste Management student undertakes work shadowing placement at SRCL

Final year Waste Management student, Stephen Anuge, recently undertook a work shadowing placement with SRCL.  SRCL is a leading healthcare waste services provider. The placement was organised by Dr Terry Tudor, a Senior Lecturer in Waste Management.

Read all about Stephen's work placement here.

Read more about Dr Terry Tudor's work supporting student employability here.

Dr Terry Tudor gives talk at Michigan State University

Dr Terry Tudor reports on his visti to Michigan State University...

I was recently invited to a very cold East Lansing, to give a talk at the home of the Spartans, the Michigan State University. The two day seminar which was entitled ‘Delivering global healthcare: from epidemic to innovation’, was hosted by the International Law Review within the University's College of Law.

It was a very interesting event with a range of eminent speakers from all over the world. Including from the USA (e.g. Prof Philip Rosoff – Professor of Paediatrics and Medicine from Duke University; Gary McRay a shareholder in law firm Foster Swift Collins and Smith; Nathan Wilson from the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics; and Gregory Sunshine and Anthony Moulton from the Chronic Diseases Centre (CDC)); South Africa (Prof Adrian Duse, the Academic Head of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases); India (Prof Prashant Mehta – the Executive Director of the Centre for Waste Recycling and Remediation Technologies, at the National Law University); and China (Ms Zhimin Mao – from the Pardee Rand Graduate School).

One of the things that was really impressive was the fact that this annual conference is very much student-led. Indeed the students came up with the theme, identified and approached the speakers, made the venue bookings, etc. It was a pleasure to be there, despite the cold weather.

Seminar on healthcare waste management

The Healthcare Waste and Resources Group, which is hosted within the School of Science and Technology at the University of Northampton, recently held a one day seminar on healthcare waste management.

The event was attended by delegates from the NHS, and the waste and environmental sectors.

 

The event, which was attended by around 55 delegates from the National Health Service (NHS), the waste industry, environmental consultancies and academia, was held at the Bywaters recycling facility in East London.  In the morning, delegates heard from a range of speakers including Andrew Hartley from the Green Investment Bank, Scott Crossett from ICERMS, Matt Wormsley from the Environment Agency, Anne Woolridge from ISSL, Peter Selkirk from Pyropure and Anna Sliwinska from the University of Northampton. The afternoon was dedicated to a site tour.

One delegate noted that:

“Not only did I enjoy the presentations and tour of the plant, I also made a number of NHS contacts whom I have arranged to visit, with a view to comparing good waste practices at different hospitals”

The seminar was approved by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) and sponsored by Frontier Medical Group and Sharpsmart, as well as SRCL, GV Health, ISSL and MITIE.

Dr Terry Tudor discusses resource efficiency in the healthcare sector

Dr Terry Tudor, a senior lecturer in Waste Management in the School of Science and Technology, was recently part of a panel examining challenges and opportunities for enhancing the resource efficiency within the healthcare sector. The discussion took place in the ‘Circular Economy Connect’ theatre, at the RWM recycling and waste management event, at the Birmingham NEC. RWM is considered to be the biggest such exhibition and seminar event in Europe.

In addition to Terry, the panel was comprised of James Dixon, waste manager and sustainability lead, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Alexandra Hammond, associate director, sustainability, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. The session was chaired by Rob Holdway from Giraffe Innovation.

James and Alexandra outlined various strategies that are being employed within their trusts, while Terry gave a more overarching view of the state of the sector. There were also opportunities for the audience to participate through the usual questions, as well as voting.

With the Health and Social Care sector in the UK coming under increasing pressures to meet financial and environmental targets, examining options for minimising wastage is both crucial and timely.

Dr Terry Tudor and colleagues

Health care waste management in Nigeria

Chinedum Okezie, postgraduate researcher

My research Investigates Health care waste management systems in Abuja Nigeria, using the World Health Organization’s best practice guidance as a catalyst for sustainable development. This research aims to examine the factors that might contribute to public health risks, their pathways and identify strategies to reduce the health implications in the case study area, to critically analyse current policies and practices for managing health care waste and develop a governance framework for improved practice in Abuja, Nigeria in the management of healthcare waste. Health care wastes (HCW) are ‘by-products of health care that include sharp non-sharps, blood, body parts, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and radioactive materials’ (WHO, 2011).

According to WHO (2011) HCW is divided into two, namely the healthcare general waste which is 75% of healthcare waste, this includes plastic packaging, paper and food waste etc; and the healthcare risk waste which is 25% of HCW. These two types of health care waste should be separated properly to avoid any form of contamination, the whole health care wastes are considered infectious as a precautionary measure. HCW like sharps produced in lesser quantities are highly infectious. When poorly managed they expose waste scavengers, waste handlers, health care workers and the community at large to infections. An important threat is contaminated needles and syringes which may be scavenged from open dump sites and waste areas and re-used (Ogbonna, 2011). A fact sheet published by WHO (2011) in developing countries stated that injections with contaminated syringes caused 21 million hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections (32% of all new infections), 21 million hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections (40% of all new infections), and 260 000 HIV infections (5% of all new infections).