Beyond Disposable: How Reusable Pads in ICUs Can Reduce Hospital waste & Protect our Planet
(published October 26, 2023 – Updated for 2025)
Hospitals, while dedicated to healing, are surprisingly significant contributors to environmental waste. Consider the sheer volume of single-use items employed in even a short patient stay: disposable face masks, gloves, packaging, IV tubing, and even seemingly innocuous tools like stainless steel scissors. This reliance on disposables isn’t a recent phenomenon. It began gaining traction in high-income countries in the 1960s, fueled by advancements in plastic manufacturing and a growing, crucial emphasis on infection prevention and control. But at what cost?
