New conversion process designed to eliminate medical waste in landfills
Sharps Compliance Inc. recently unveiled a first-of-its-kind, patent-pending Green Waste Conversion Process that the company says can eliminate medical waste going into landfills by 100 percent.
The process transforms discarded medical waste into a new product called PELLA-DRX – a clean, raw, compact and transportable material that bears no physical resemblance to medical waste. PELLA-DRX can be used in the manufacture of industrial resources, including everything from highways to high-rise buildings, and is ideal for use in energy intensive industries like cement, lime, steel and power plants.
“We receive medical waste (used needles, syringes, lancets, and unused medication etc.) by mail from all across the U.S.,” explains David Tusa, Executive VP of Sharps Compliance Inc.
“This waste is first treated in an autoclave with extremely high pressure and temperature to destroy any disease pathogens. The material is then shredded, quality-checked and compressed into clean, safe and compact PELLA-DRX pellets that are completely clean, and as safe as sterilized medical instruments."
“While medical waste disposal at hospitals and other healthcare facilities is highly regulated, medical waste outside of that setting has been largely unregulated for years,” states Tusa.
“It is amazing that we as a country regulate the disposal of car batteries, oil and tires but not something much more dangerous like used syringes – which if stuck could cause life threatening illnesses.”
“Sharps Compliance solutions are responsible for removing more than 600 million potentially harmful syringes from the solid waste stream, and have kept an estimated 90,000 pounds of unused medications from the water system and medicine cabinets,” Tusa adds.
According to Sharps, PELLA-DRX pellets will eventually be useful in a wide range of industrial applications, but initially they are being used in the cement industry where the pellets are now part of the mix for making roads and buildings. The company says PELLA-DRX pellets are an excellent feed material for most energy intensive industries, and is superior to fossil fuel in energy and environmental concerns. The pellets will also be excellent for use in lime, chemical, steel and power plants as well as paper mills and others.
“Absolutely none of the medical waste we process will ever go to a landfill,” said Dr. Burton Kunik, Sharps Chairman and CEO. “Instead it is repurposed into a raw material that becomes part of a new product. With our ground-breaking, conversion process, medical waste throughout the world can now become a sustainable product managed in the most effective, environmentally-thoughtful means possible.”
Sharps describes its new process as “a momentous leap forward in the environmentally responsible treatment of regulated medical waste.
“We’re not just reducing the amount of medical waste being sent to landfills, we’re completely eliminating it,” said Kunik.
