Nurallah Rahim rips the plastic off a pack of sponges in a vacant operating room at the Scarborough Hospital.
Even though he’s clad in scrubs and a hair net, and despite the extra layer of paper protecting the sterilized pads, these unused sponges — just because they have been opened — are contaminated and must be destroyed. Rahim, patient care director of the hospital’s surgical services, is demonstrating how easily waste accumulates as a result of efforts to keep operating theatres safe and clean.
After years of nurses’ frustration with having to deal with the mountains of surgical waste, his hospital and others in the GTA are discovering ways to reduce their environmental footprint.
And they’re finding that being green is often less expensive