Approximately 90% of medical waste generated in the operating room (OR) is considered to be non-infectious and non-regulated (Wyssusek, Keys & van Zundert, 2019). Frequently, this waste is inappropriately disposed of into infectious regulated medical waste containers. Due to differences in waste treatment, improper segregation can lead to the misuse or inappropriate allocation of resources, environmental pollution, and increased cost for institutions. A waste segregation initiative was instituted in a tertiary care medical center in the anesthesia work-space of 35 ORs. This initiative included education of medical waste management to increase anesthesia staff knowledge and compliance with waste segregation and optimization of existing waste disposal containers to decrease waste disposal costs. After implementation, there was an increase in overall provider knowledge (p < 0.001) particularly in the categories of medication vial disposal, medication disposal and identification of items for disposal in the sharps containers (p ≤ 0.05). Data suggests a 34.7% increase in providers reporting to always practice waste segregation (p ≤ 0.05). Additionally, there was a statistically significant decrease in overall weight of regulated medical waste items from 0.33 kg/case to 0.09 kg/case (p < 0.001). This decrease in regulated waste supports an improvement in waste segregation and inappropriate items being disposed of in the general trash container. The omission of inappropriate waste was further confirmed by a segregation audit that showed an overall increase in correctly segregated regulated waste of 65%. Collectively, this lead to a cost savings of $15.60 per OR per week, or $28,392 annually.

手术室（OR）中产生的约90％的医疗废物被认为是非传染性且不受监管的（Wyssusek，Keys＆van Zundert，2019）。通常，这种废物被不适当地处置到受传染性管制的医疗废物容器中。由于废物处理的不同，隔离不当会导致资源的滥用或分配不当，环境污染以及机构成本增加。在35个手术室的麻醉工作区中的三级医疗中心提出了废物分类倡议。该计划包括对医疗废物管理进行教育，以增加麻醉人员的知识和对废物分类的依从性，并优化现有废物处理容器以降低废物处理成本。实施后，提供者的整体知识有所增加（p <0.001），特别是在药物瓶处置，药物处置以及在利器容器中处置物品的识别等类别（p≤0.05）。数据表明，报告称始终实行废物分类的提供者增加了34.7％（p≤0.05）。此外，受管制的医疗废物的总重量从0.33千克/箱下降到0.09千克/箱，具有统计学上的显着下降（p <0.001）。受管制废物的减少支持废物分类的改善，以及不适当的物品在普通垃圾箱中的处置。隔离审计进一步证实了对不适当废物的遗漏，显示正确隔离的受管制废物总体增加了65％。总共节省了15美元。