In healthcare, infection control and the challenge of keeping environmental surfaces disinfected and free from harmful microorganisms is an unrelenting priority. It’s a task as essential as it is daunting – requiring staff to be meticulous in selecting the right products, understanding the relevant microbial threats, and ensuring procedures are followed to the letter.
For years pre-wetted wipes have been the go-to product for surface disinfection in hospitals, thanks to their convenience and ease of use. However, there is a growing concern that this method is not only environmentally unsustainable but potentially ineffective in dealing with today’s infection control challenges.
The Inconvenient Truth About Pre-Wetted Wipes
Pre-wetted wipes are widely used for surface disinfection due to their convenience. Ready-to-use out of the package, they require no additional preparation, making them ideal for fast-paced healthcare environments. However, behind the convenience lies a significant environmental problem: these wipes, made entirely from plastic and then packaged in non-recyclable laminate, are adding an alarming amount of waste to our landfills and incinerators. In the NHS alone, pre-pandemic procurement figures show that over 4.5 million surface wipes were used and thrown away in one year, resulting in 400 tonnes of plastic waste.
But the environmental concerns don’t stop there. When disposed of, these plastic wipes either end up in landfills, where they degrade over centuries or are incinerated, releasing harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into our environment. Burning 400 tonnes of plastic wipes will have resulted in 2.4 million kilograms of CO₂ emissions. That quantity of air pollution would take 40,000 tree seedlings over a decade to absorb.
Are Pre-Wetted Wipes Effective?
Aside from the environmental impact, there are growing doubts about the effectiveness of pre-wetted wipes in combating harmful microorganisms of concern.
In many cases, these types of wipes are saturated with low-level disinfectant chemistries, which will not provide the broad-spectrum protection required in hospital environments. This shortfall leaves surfaces vulnerable to dangerous pathogens like Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile), Candida auris (C. auris) and other microorganisms that may lead to healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
Moreover, pre-wetted wipes hold a fixed amount of disinfectant liquid, which often dries out before the necessary contact time is achieved to eliminate all pathogens. This forces staff to use more wipes than necessary, driving up costs and contributing to even more waste. There’s also the risk of antimicrobial resistance when low-level disinfectants fail to completely destroy microorganisms, leaving behind organisms that could mutate and develop resistance to future antimicrobial treatments.
Chlorine Dioxide: An Effective and Sustainable Alternative
The issues posed by pre-wetted wipes call for a solution that balances efficacy with environmental sustainability. Enter Cache – a product portfolio from Tristel that harnesses the power of chlorine dioxide for routine surface disinfection in healthcare settings. Unlike traditional disinfectants, chlorine dioxide offers a more effective and environmentally responsible approach to tackling surface contamination.
Chlorine dioxide is a broad-spectrum powerful oxidising agent that attacks all parts of the microorganism’s cell, ensuring total eradication. This means that no traces of the microorganism are left to mutate or develop resistance, making it a vital tool in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Furthermore, chlorine dioxide has a much lower oxidation potential than chlorine, meaning it is less likely to react with other materials or create harmful byproducts. This gives it a far superior compatibility profile for use on various hospital surfaces, from floors and countertops to medical equipment.
Simplifying Infection Control with Cache
Cache offers a one-size-fits-all approach to surface disinfection, designed to address all the key concerns healthcare professionals face in infection control. With a single, uniform contact time, Cache products eliminate the guesswork involved in surface wiping. One contact time applicable to all microorganisms, in accordance with EN 14885 standards, covering a broad spectrum of microorganisms from bacteria to more resilient bacterial spores like Clostrididioides difficile.
Cache products have one dilution rate, streamlining a process that is often prone to error and inefficiency in healthcare settings. By using one consistent dilution rate for all disinfection needs, staff can be assured that the correct solution strength is applied every time. This proactive, simplified approach not only reduces errors but also enhances overall infection control practices.
Breaking the Price Barrier
In an over-stretched NHS and any busy healthcare environment, price is always a critical factor when choosing a product. With pre-wetted wipes the following has been true for decades: the more effective the wipe, the higher its cost. Posing a difficult trade-off between budgets and patient safety. Cache breaks the mould.
Cache products offer sporicidal, broad-spectrum disinfection at a lower price than the most popular low-level disinfectant wipes on the market (you read that right!). This means hospitals no longer have to choose between effective infection control and affordability. With Cache, you get both.
Addressing Sustainability
In addition to providing superior performance and cost, Cache offers an environmentally sustainable option too. Cache products use small, concentrated capsules of chlorine dioxide that can be diluted at the point of use, drastically reducing packaging waste. In fact, one Cache capsule holding 200ml of concentrate can make the equivalent of 2,000 sporicidal pre-wetted wipes. Even better, all components of Cache packaging are recyclable – capsule, label, film and all – making for an incredibly light environmental footprint.
This flexibility extends to different healthcare settings, from large hospital wards to small clinics, where staff can scale the solution to meet their needs. Whether used in high-traffic areas or smaller spaces, Cache’s system offers a versatile and practical solution to infection control.
The Future of Infection Control
In a healthcare landscape where sustainability and patient safety are critical, the need to rethink pre-wetted wipes is clear. While they’ve served their purpose, the environmental and clinical drawbacks are becoming too significant to ignore. Cache represents a smarter, more sustainable approach to infection prevention, one that not only ensures hospital surfaces are thoroughly disinfected but also minimises waste and growing healthcare concerns such as antimicrobial resistance.
As hospitals continue to face the dual pressures of maintaining high standards of hygiene while reducing their environmental impact, products like Cache will be essential in transforming infection control practices for the better. Whether you’re concerned about plastic waste, the efficacy of surface disinfection, or the fight against antimicrobial resistance, Cache provides an all-in-one solution that aligns with the growing demand for greener, safer healthcare environments.
With Cache, hospitals no longer have to choose between environmental sustainability and effective infection control. A win for patient safety and the planet.
Author
Elanor Dixon
Product Director – Tristel Global