Topic

Laminating & clinell wipes vs paper use

Sivan  Coleman
Sivan Coleman • 22 August 2024

Hello,

I'm a Speech and Language Therapist and in my daily clinical life I often use paper based resources for assessments. Some of the assessments that we use are frequently laminated (so as to avoid repeated printing and paper wastage), but we often end up using Clinell wipes for cleaning them with, which feels counter-intuitive because my assumption would be that a Clinell wipe has a higher environmental cost than a sheet of paper.

I sometimes clean the laminated sheets with paper towels and hand sanitiser, though even then the packaging of the sanitiser should probably be considered.

I tried to look for life cycle analysis of the various products. Clinell don't have it clearly published, though an article references it (though lumps it alongside gloves) and the company that manufacture Clinell appear to be planning an LCA for some of their products. For the hand sanitisers there seems to some relevant data already available. I could not find anything specific re laminating pouches.

I am aware however that such research is far beyond my usual skill-set and there are likely multiple other factors that need considering in the wider scheme.

It is possible that I am over-thinking this, but in our small department it is shocking the amount of paper we go through and I would guess that this dilemma is not specific to SLT and could have a wider impact. 

I understand that there are many factors that could change the 'weigh up' in my head (e.g. how many uses the laminated sheets are replacing over the course of a year, whether I tend to use the Clinell for more than one laminated sheet at a time etc), however I would appreciate if anyone had any insights or directions to steer me in.

Comments (1)

Martin Still
Martin Still

Morning Sivan, nice to meet you. I am Martin, Senior Matron for IPC working at UHSussex. I think of things like this everyday, so you are not alone. :)

Clinell wipes are 100% polypropylene, so not very sustainable! We use about 80,000 packs a 200 wipes a year, and they go in the bin. They have said they they are producing a wood pulp version soon

I would suggest a reusable washable cloth and general purpose detergent for cleaning/ wiping

Re laminating - I challenged this recently as it seems we laminate things for IPC? Probably introduced during a CQC visit with inspectors with no hospital experience. There is zero infection risk from paper. But it is a good idea to laminate paper things to make them last longer

Keep challenging the status quo keep up the great work

Martin


Please log in or sign up to comment.