Is the green mark really recyclable?

Abstract

I read the paper by López-Muñoz et al 1 on ‘Life cycle assessment of routinely used endoscopic instruments and simple intervention to reduce our environmental impact’ with great interest. The green mark setting for parts that do not come into contact with the endoscope’s operating channel is a very simple and convenient method that can be carried out on site, and it was shown that the environmental impact of the equipment could be greatly reduced by recycling. However, as we read the paper, two questions came to mind. First, there is a possibility that the risk of nosocomial contamination was underestimated. There is insufficient evidence to show that the separation of equipment using the green mark system meets infection control standards. To evaluate the safety of the method and the risk of the nosocomial contamination of the biopsy forceps that are recycled, we conducted a simple bacteriological evaluation and measurements of ATP in a limited number of cases (figure 1A). In …