Johns Hopkins Health System is piloting a new way to reduce medical waste: recycling used supplies instead of sending them to the landfill. In partnership with Detroit-based Caracal, the discarded items will be sorted, processed and sent off to have a second life instead of being thrown away.
“We’re doing our part to take their stuff,” Caracal senior vice president of sales Matt Bajorek said, “and reuse it in the market.” Johns Hopkins healthcare workers will now see two types of discard bags in the operating room. Doctors and nurses will sort protective wear into one bag and supply packaging into the other, and Caracal’s crew will handle sorting at its regional hub, according to Bajorek.
At Caracal’s center in Lansdowne, a large machine condenses the material into dense cubes. Truckloads of bales head to another facility to be melted into small plastic pellets, which can be used for new consumer and healthcare products.