Leading healthcare service SRCL has launched a new sharps management service to make disposal of the thousands of needles used in healthcare safer and greener. The service will see sharps boxes emptied, cleaned and re-circulated, helping to reduce the thousands of tonnes of plastic being incinerated each year.

The service also helps to reduce the risk of needlestick injuries to healthcare staff. SRCL, who own the web portals First Practice Management and Dental Practice Management, will undertake complete management of sharps waste to reduce risk, using their own technicians to assemble, distribute and collect bins from their point of use.

Once collected, sharps boxes are then opened, emptied and disinfected at SRCL's new sharps recycling plant in Leeds. The process uses automated robotics to remove all infectious material, which is incinerated, while the boxes are sent through a high temperature wash process. The robust boxes have a lifecycle of around 200 uses, compared to the traditional single use approach. This will make far better use of what is an expensive and energy-intensive product to manufacture and will save thousands of tonnes of plastic from being incinerated each year.

Ensuring effective infection control is one of the main issues for healthcare staff when it comes to reusable sharps containers. Once SRCL's sharps recycling plant is fully operational this summer, an hourly testing regime will confirm that the process is sanitising bins to the correct standard. The system will operate to relevant quality standards and at a temperature far in excess of what it required. The process is independently validated.

To find out more about the sharps management service from SRCL, visit www.srcl.com or telephone 0333 240 4400.