On June 27 Colorado Medical Waste was named a Colorado Company to Watch Winner, a prestigious award that “honors second stage companies that develop valuable products and services, create quality jobs, enrich communities, and create new industries throughout Colorado.”
And the influence Colorado Medical Waste has had on the community is substantial, not just economically, but environmentally as well, by using an innovative ozone-processing technique to dramatically reduce the state’s medical waste.
Medical waste, materials that may be contaminated by blood, body fluids or other potentially infectious materials, not only puts health care workers and the community at large at risk if not properly disposed of, but has a tremendous negative effect on the environment as well. In the United States alone, hospitals produce more than 2.3 million tons of waste each year.
The most common methods for sterilization and destruction include incineration, steam sterilization, dry heat thermal treatment and chemical disinfection, all of which consume valuable resources like water and natural gas, while producing environmentally harmful emissions in the process.
With strict legal regulations and inadequate funding, the disposal of medical waste in a manner that is both legal and eco-friendly feels like an even greater burden for medical facilities. Proper disposal of medical waste is already a financial struggle for many facilities, and administrators and caregivers alike are often more concerned with immediate patient care and service efficiency, rather than maintaining environmentally-friendly business practices
Colorado Medical Waste’s technique proves to be a game-changer for this challenge the health industry has been dealing with for decades. The company uses ozone gas, electricity and an industrial shredder to reduce medical waste to a confetti-like substance, reducing its volume by 90 percent, with “ZERO” emissions. The technique is eco-friendly, cost-efficient, and is in fact 100 times more effective at killing mold, viruses, bacteria and infectious pathogens than steam sterilization.
While the company is still operating solely in Colorado, its innovations are an exciting advancement for healthcare technology that has the potential to expand and improve other areas of waste disposal as well.
In a time when technology and human consumption is at its peak, and environmental concerns are on the rise, one company alone is certainly not going to eradicate all the problems that come with disposing waste. But it is an open door to what could be an incredible improvement in the toll basic human healthcare takes on the environment.
