Single-use, plastic drinking, straws, ear buds and disposable plates, will all be banned by 2021, under a new European parliament directive, in an effort to tackle pollution particularly in seas, and waterways.
Increasing awareness of the term single-use, that describes items whose unchecked proliferation is blamed for harming the environment, wildlife, and affecting the food chain– led it to be named as, Collins Dictionary’s word of the year 2018.
In healthcare, single-use products, sometimes plastic, are designed to only be used once, as this guarantees sterility and greatly reduces the risks of post-surgical site infections.
There is a strong argument for using single-use products, rather than reprocessing them, as according to NICE, surgical site infections account for one fifth of all healthcare associated infections, with an overall cost to the NHS of an estimated £700 million per year.
Using sterile, brand new, ready to use surgical instruments, that are disposed of after use, reduces the risk of cross contamination.
Surgitrac single-use stainless steel instruments are designed to be used once, then disposed of in a clinical waste bin. The outer cardboard packaging 100% recyclable along with the Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG), plastic blister pack that houses the individual sterile products.
PETG is a Thermoplastic, which means that it can be shaped and reshaped over and over again without any degradation to the material itself, allowing it to be recycled and re purposed indefinitely.
Click here for Surgitrac Instruments’ Environmental Policy.
