Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD) and Waste Management have launched the BD ecoFinity Life Cycle Solution, a program that will recycle medical sharps collected from hospitals and other healthcare facilities to create new products.

“Our unique integrated environmental solutions increase value by managing materials more efficiently to help lower the costs for our healthcare customers, while maintaining safety and compliance standards,” said Mike McInerney, vice president of WM Healthcare Solutions, a subsidiary of Waste Management, in a press release. “We are pleased to be collaborating with BD to move forward our shared vision of safety and sustainability.”

BD, which is based in Franklin Lakes, N.J., manufactures medical devices.

“BD’s long-term objective is to reduce the environmental impacts of our products at each stage of the life cycle,” said Bill Kozy, executive vice president of BD, in a statement. “The collaboration between Waste Management and BD will help healthcare facilities reduce the materials that go into disposal, and aligns with BD’s sustainability vision to reduce the environmental footprint of medication delivery.”

Based on the results of a pilot program that it conducted at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, BD believes that more than 70 percent of medical sharps can be recycled.

(To learn more about medical waste issues, check out Penton Media’s Healthcare Waste Conference, which will be held May 11-12 in Dallas. The show will be co-located with WasteExpo.)