Dr. Sherman, it would be great if you could offer your perspective on this issue. I just completed my surgery-anesthesia clerkship and was dismayed to see the tremendous amount of plastic waste in the OR. I also read your interview with “Yale Sustainability” and I would be interested in hearing your perspective on how to incentivize hospitals to reprocess more of their medical waste and reuse supplies without compromising infection prevention guidelines.

The issue of equity comes to the forefront with this question because we know that in NYC, hospitals that were located in less affluent neighborhoods experienced greater supply chain disruptions and PPE shortages than hospitals located in other neighborhoods. Health care workers located in hospitals in the Bronx, for example, were forced to reuse PPE and experienced shortages compared to their counterparts in other parts of the city.