Join TRA2SH for Operation Clean Up on Friday 22 April 2022

TRA2SH* is a junior doctor-led environmental sustainability network active across Australia and New Zealand. Their goals are to engage and encourage curiosity in how to transform workplaces to be more environmentally sustainable through education, leadership, audit and feedback. Operation Clean Up is in its third year and is a binational day of engagement delivered by TRA2SH members in their hospitals on Friday 22 April (Earth Day).

Operation Clean-Up Logo, showing a globe behind a smaller recycle symbol

Operation Clean Up is a day of engagement in environmental sustainability and will be held for the third time on Friday 22 April 2022 (Earth Day).

By signing up on their website, individuals receive a ‘how-to’ document, educational resources and posters to use to deliver an educational campaign and undertake a simple procurement audit. The education campaign centres around the environmental hierarchy of refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle.

In 2022 their goals will be ‘refuse desflurane’, which is a potent greenhouse gas and anaesthetic agent; ‘reduce blueys’, which are single-use plastic absorbent underpads also referred to as greenies, chux or incopads; ‘reuse’ equipment such as reusable drug trays, laryngoscopes, drapes and gowns by investigating how they might be implemented, and ‘recycle’ by ensuring high-energy waste streams like clinical waste are managed appropriately or by undertaking TRA2SH’s sharps bin audit.

TRA2SH* encourages anyone interested in improving their environmental footprint at work to participate in Operation Clean Up. The targets can be adjusted so that campaigns can be tailored to your hospital’s needs, and they encourage creativity and flexibility! Operation Clean Up focuses on critical care areas such as ICU, operating theatres and emergency departments.

For more information visit their website at www.tra2sh.org/ocu.

*TRA2SH stands for trainee-led research and audit in anaesthesia for sustainable healthcare.

Submitted by Dr Jess Davies, Honorary Clinical Lecturer, Department of Critical Care and Staff Anaesthetist, Austin Health