Environmental Sensitivities
A significant contribution to the reduction of medical waste is accomplished by the collection and reprocessing of Single-Use-Devices. Many Single-Use-Devices, otherwise disposed of after one use, are reprocessed safely following stringent FDA guidelines. As a collector of devices and distributor of remanufactured devices, ClearMedical is on track to have saved over 1 million pounds of medical waste for the 5-year period ending 2006.
Hospitals for a Health Environment (H2E), supports reprocessors and their contributions to landfill avoidance. H2E's mission is to provide education, tools and information about best environmental practices to help health care professionals improve operational efficiency, increase compliance, and improve the health of their communities.
H2E Goals:
In 1998, the American Hospital Association and the US Environmental Protection Agency signed a landmark agreement to advance pollution prevention efforts in our nation's health care facilities. The resulting Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which is the cornerstone of the H2E initiative, calls for:
- Virtually eliminating mercury-containing waste from health care facilities' waste streams
- Reducing the overall volume of waste (both regulated and non-regulated waste)
- Identifying hazardous substances for pollution prevention and waste reduction opportunities, including hazardous chemicals and persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic pollutants
ClearMedical continues to support H2E initiatives by finding additional opportunities to reprocess and distribute Single Use Devices.