Partnership Resources," says Ms. Crosby. A non-profit organization that,
like Park Nicollet, is based in the Minneapolis area, PRI (partner-
shipresources.org) offers vocational training and employment to adults
with developmental disabilities. Its employees, she says, "are so proud of
the work they do, and it is heartwarming to interact with them when
they collect our recycling." To Park Nicollet's staff, employing PRI gives
the surgery center's environmental efforts even more of a shine.
"It's really a great story," says Mr. Bashir. "We're proud of the rela-
tionship we've built with the organization. It's a win-win."
While PRI initially sent trucks to cart the collected recyclables from
the Park Nicollet campus, they've since installed a compactor on site
for more efficient transportation. And there's been plenty to transport.
In the last 9 months of 2015, the campus that includes the ASC diverted
20 tons of material that would have wound up in the garbage waste
stream to the recycling collection, says Mr. Slade. Adds Ms. Crosby,
"Now we have almost as much going into recycling as garbage."
Recycling disposables isn't the only way that Park Nicollet ASC has
gone greener. It's also taken steps toward sustainability in how it man-
ages fluid waste and single-use devices.
OR staff used to manually dump large fluid collection canisters after
major arthroscopy cases, and solidify and wrap smaller canisters for
disposal with biohazardous red-bag waste. "That's a heavy load of
waste going out of the facility," says Mr. Bashir. But the purchase of a
Stryker Neptune fluid waste management system last year has signifi-
cantly reduced the center's canister waste. "This has been a great
change," he says.
The center also contracts with a single-use device reprocessor to
turn around supplies that would otherwise be sent to the landfill.
They collect tourniquet cuffs and sequential compression booties for
reprocessing, which the center routinely repurchases, and burrs and
8 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 6
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