Luz Saúde SA

04/05/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/05/2024 02:32

Operating room plastic textiles gain new life

Hospital da Luz Lisboa joins project Second Chance: non-contaminated blue wrap is reused in towels and coats.

Hospital da Luz Lisboa joins project Second Chance, promoted by the private social solidarity institution Entrajuda, that has for goal to repurpose and reuse non-contaminated blue wrap - the plastic textile (type 5 polypropylene) enveloping sterilized equipment sent to the operating room.

Up to now, blue wrap was usually discarded as hospital waste. Between May 2023 and March 2024, the Hospital delivered Entrajuda around 445 kg of blue wrap, which was reused to manufacture completely different textile products, such as towels, sleeping bags and padded coats for winter.

Project Second Chance:

  • Has in its genesis environmental and sustainability concerns, as well as contributing for a Circular Economy. It promotes the recycling of materials used in the operating room, that are usually discarded as hospital waste, but which for their features have a potential for reuse.
  • In HL Lisboa Operating Theatre, the non-contaminated blue wrap - which comes from the sterilizing central service and envelops surgical equipment, is separated and stored in an appropriate place. Afterwards, it is gathered by the team of intra-hospital waste collection, that picks and packs it for subsequent delivery to Entrajuda.
  • The gathered material served, namely, to manufacture sleeping bags and coats destined to homeless people, and towels for the Eucharistic celebrations during the World Youth Gathering. The manufacturing of these items is done resorting to jobless people from Vila Nova de Gaia, in the context of a partnership between Entrajuda and the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP).
  • The material not used in the former applications is forwarded to the plastic industry, to be transformed into granules. The use of these granules in the production of bedpans and tiles to pave playgrounds is under study, a project developed in collaboration with the Portuguese Association of the Plastic Industry.

Entrajuda is an IPSS that helps improving the management and organization of other social solidarity institutions.