Ava Ferguson Bryan, MD, AM, Elizabeth Yates, MD, MPH, and Neelima Tummala, MD, MSc
The health sector has obligations and ample opportunities to protect health by decreasing waste and motivating more system-wide sustainable clinical practices.
Government- and industry-funded campaigns for medication disposal do work, but responsibility often falls on local health care organizations to provide education and services.
Lisa Patel, MD, MESc and Katie E. Lichter, MD, MPH
Health care generates a lot of waste that enters landfills, oceans, and incinerators and adversely affects communities close to waste processing and disposal areas.
Dumping domestic and international health care waste into the earth’s terra firma and oceans undermine global health equity and the health of vulnerable communities.
Mismanagement of hospital waste can release harmful, deleterious contaminants into soil, water, and air and can have far-reaching environmental and public relations consequences.