Making Waves in Healthcare Sustainability: SwipeSense’s Commitment to Reducing Plastic Waste
Healthcare is notorious for its environmental footprint, particularly when it comes to waste generation. While it can sometimes be unavoidable, single-use plastics currently dominate the industry due to stringent infection control protocols, sterility requirements, and patient safety concerns. This widespread reliance on disposable plastic products has significant environmental consequences.
Every year in the United States, the healthcare sector generates an estimated 1.7 million tons of plastic waste. What’s even more alarming is how little of this waste gets a second life, with research indicating less than 10% is recycled. The vast majority ends up in landfills, incineration facilities, or worse—finding its way into our waterways, ecosystems, and oceans.
At SwipeSense, we recognize our responsibility to be part of the solution rather than contributing to this growing crisis. As a part of SC Johnson, a company with a longstanding commitment to environmental stewardship, we’re dedicated to aligning our practices with sustainable principles that benefit both healthcare outcomes and our planet.
Our Badge Refurbishment Program: Small Devices, Big Impact
For the past eight years, SwipeSense has been pioneering sustainability in healthcare technology through a series of recycling and refurbishment programs. Instead of contributing to electronic waste and plastic pollution, we’ve implemented processes that give our various components a second life or are disposed of safely.
One of our most recent developments these processes is our comprehensive badge refurbishment program. Through collaboration with our manufacturers, suppliers, and engineers, we’ve developed a thorough refurbishment process that ensures used badges are:
- Thoroughly cleaned and sanitized
- Carefully disassembled, with internal components inspected
- Fitted with fresh batteries
- Resealed using advanced ultrasonic welding technology
- Individually tested and inspected to guarantee full functionality
This process, managed by our experienced local manufacturer in Illinois, ensures that each refurbished badge delivers the same reliability and performance as a new one—while preventing thousands of plastic devices from entering landfills each year.
Comprehensive Hardware Recycling Across Systems
Our commitment to sustainability extends beyond just badges. When upgrading hospitals to our Next Gen System, we’ve established two distinct recycling pathways:
1. Legacy SwipeSense Hardware: We take existing Communication Hubs and Location Hubs and give them new life—reflashing, cleaning, and updating firmware to transform them into Next Generation hardware.
2. Legacy Clean Hands – Safe Hands Hardware: Through our partnership with CheckSammy, we ensure that electronic and plastic components from these systems are safely disposed of, with recyclable materials being properly processed.
Additionally, all SwipeSense asset tags undergo similar refurbishment and upgrading processes, further reducing our environmental footprint in healthcare settings.
Part of Something Bigger: Aligning with SC Johnson’s Environmental Initiatives
As part of the SC Johnson family, SwipeSense’s sustainability efforts contribute to a larger global mission. Our work specifically resonates with SC Johnson’s “The Blue Paradox” initiative—an immersive educational experience designed to highlight the ocean plastic crisis and inspire action.
The Blue Paradox brings attention to startling statistics: over 14 million tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans annually, equating to 888 pounds every second. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch alone weighs approximately 87,000 tons, equivalent to 500 jumbo jets.
By preventing our healthcare technology from contributing to this crisis, SwipeSense is doing its part to address what SC Johnson has identified as a critical environmental challenge—the dual nature of plastic that brings progress and convenience while posing severe threats to our oceans and planet.
Join Us in Creating a More Sustainable Healthcare Environment
This Earth Day, we invite our healthcare partners to join us in our sustainability journey. When upgrading your SwipeSense systems, please collect and return any old badges—we’ll provide prepaid return labels to make this process as simple as possible.
By participating in our recycling program, you’re not only improving hand hygiene monitoring in your facility, but also contributing to a more sustainable healthcare ecosystem and a healthier planet.
Together, we can demonstrate that advanced healthcare technology and environmental responsibility can go hand in hand—creating a healthcare system that saves lives while protecting our planet for future generations.