ArticleCanadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie2025
From garbage to green in the operating room: an anesthesiology resident-led soft plastics recycling quality improvement project.
Article in Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Surgical Oncologists for Sustainability: A Statement from the SSO Surgical Oncologists for Sustainability Committee.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Review
- Recycling and Environmental Sustainability in Anesthesia Practice: Beyond Low‑Flow Anesthesia.Cureus · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeAnesthesia contributes up to 25% of operating room (OR) waste. We sought to conduct a quality improvement project to initiate soft plastic recycling, aiming to recycle 1,000 g per day of soft plastic.
methodsIn this single-centre, anesthesiology resident-led quality improvement initiative in British Columbia, Canada, we started a soft plastics recycling collection program in a single operating room (OR) and expanded it to 12 ORs through a series of Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. The outcome measure was the daily weight of soft plastics recycled. We tracked the number of mistakes as a balancing measure. We collected data eight months after the conclusion of the project to assess sustained changes. We visualized data with Shewhart control charts.
resultsOne OR resulted in a mean (standard deviation [SD]) of 194 (157) g of soft plastics collected daily. Once we expanded to all ORs, a mean (SD) of 1,524 (708) g of waste was collected daily. A mean (SD) of 1,284 (613) g was recycled daily during the eight-month follow-up. There was a median [interquartile range (IQR)] of 0 [0-2] mistakes per day with only one OR, which increased to a median [IQR] of 2 [1-4] mistakes per day upon expansion, and remained low at eight months, with a median [IQR] of 1 [0-3] mistake per day. E-mail reminders and signage improved the error rate.
conclusionsWe successfully introduced and sustained a soft plastics collection program in our centre's OR suite with the aim to stream it for recycling. Monitoring and education were helpful in growing the program and reducing errors.
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Registered trials
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