Sharpsmart's 'Earth Day' impact on McGill University

“With over 40,000 sharps containers being disposed of at the Glen site every year, creating a re-usable program seemed like a natural next step”

To memorialise Earth Day, McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) in Montreal has reflected on the contribution its conversion to Daniels Sharpsmart sharps containers has made on the facility’s environmental footprint. The article in full can be read here.

The authors reflect that in Montreal hospitals alone, more than $1 million worth of single-use plastic sharps containers used for the storage and disposal of needles, syringes and biomedical waste, end up in landfill each year. This equates to more than three tons of plastic and an estimated half a ton of cardboard packaging. The authors confirm that MUHC’s decision to adopt the Daniels Sharpsmart reusable sharps containers has benefited nearly every clinical department and will save the MUHC tens of thousands of dollars.

“The Reusable Daniels Sharpsmart containers are the safest in the industry. The other containers were prone to needlestick injuries.”

Enviro-Housekeeping Operations Manager Joe Derocher

McGill University has deployed Daniels’ full range of Sharpsmart containers for the collection of biomedical, cytotoxic and pharmaceutical sharps and, in their full colourful array, have been nicknamed “skittles” by the environmental services team. Some of the attributes of the Sharpsmart container that have garnered strong adoption across more than 1,800 disposal sites at McGill’s Glen facility are:

• Sharpsmart containers can be used up to 500 times, cementing a strong environmental impact across their life cycle
• It requires “just a glance to know when they are full”
• Sharpsmart containers are leak and spill proof, with barcode tracking ability in the event of degradation.
• Tamperproof design is crucial, especially when used in MUHC’s children’s hospital

“What satisfies me is that it’s rare to be able to successfully put in place a new program that touches 100 percent of clinical areas”

Enviro-Housekeeping Operations Manager Joe Derocher

MUHC is committed to aligning its day to day operations with environmental best practices, and we at Daniels Health are proud to be able to contribute to their sustainability movement. Access the full article via the MUHC website.