Hospital recycling and proper waste disposal are often overlooked as important ways to improve the environment.  Regulated medical waste is destroyed using energy intensive systems, usually autoclaving or incineration. If 50% of the regulated medical waste is actually regular trash or is recyclable, then...

• hospitals are missing the opportunity of recycling millions of pounds of hi-quality recyclables each year.
• hospitals are consuming twice the energy needed, and producing twice the necessary amounts of air pollutants.
• hospitals are using twice the required amount of incineration stations.

Reduction is always the first and best approach to pollution abatement, therefore, reducing the amount of RMW will significantly reduce the pollution it causes.