Operation reusable tray

Surgical gowns, drapes, gauzes and syringes - materials from the operating theatre are invariably thrown away, even if they have not been used. This makes five percent of all waste in the Netherlands from healthcare. Five percent! The 'ReUsable Tray' project - the instrument table used in operations - lowers the impact of the healthcare sector by replacing disposable for reusable materials.

On the instrument table, all the knives, scissors and textile products for surgery are routinely stored. Many of these products are not used, then invariably incinerated. The reason why hospitals and healthcare institutions do not yet opt for reuse? Mainly because of the price: reuse is much more expensive than disposable materials. This is mainly due to cleaning, transport and storage costs. As soon as more hospitals use reusable materials, these costs will drop. And so reusable becomes more attractive.

This project is a first step towards scaling up: three hospitals are testing reusable instrument tables in operations for six months. The results will help develop the most sustainable composition and make operations more sustainable.

We do this in a nutshell

In this project, we work to reduce the impact of the healthcare sector by:

• to investigate how potentially reusable materials such as trays, tubing, and healthcare textiles in operations can contribute to a more sustainable healthcare sector;

• to work with an external party to see how the instrument table affects the environment (using a Life Cycle Assessment) and how this works out financially using a method of assessing the economic impact of technologies, products or processes (d.m.v. a Health Technology Assessment).

• investigate behavioural change while implementing working with reusable instrument tables.

• organise master classes for healthcare staff and purchasing parties to engage them in the sustainable solutions. Bianca Streng will give a masterclass on the impact of textiles and how to make it more sustainable in healthcare.

These parties are participating

Together with several hospitals from Europe and some market players, we are investigating what the circular model for instrument tables could look like. CSR Netherlands is working together with coordinating hospital Amsterdam UMC (project leader Dorien Salentijn), hospitals OLVG, LUMC, healthcare textile company Clean Lease, medical product suppliers Asker Healthcare Group, Evercare Medical, Rudolf Heintel Gesellschaft MBh and research institute Vienna institute for research in ocular surgery.

This project was funded by THCS within the EU Horizon Europe programme, with support from ZonMw, Vinnova and FFG Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft.