[Margaret Pilkington]

Exile, undoubtedly there is waste.
The scissors are defined as 'single use'....in fact I once asked why they could not be sent to CSSD(The hospital sterilising department) and was told that it was more expensive to sterilise them than to replace them.
Where I worked we saved them and one of our consultants used to take a container load of stuff that was surplus to requirements, over to a missionary hospital in India...so they would be re-used over there.
For the cutting of a bandage...the scissors do not need to be sterile and every nurse I ever knew had their own pair of scissors for the non sterile stuff....and we used to clean our scissors daily with alcohol wipes.

As to other waste....commodes, walking frames, elbow crutches...these (or at least some of these) are being recycled.
As a senior Sisre/Ward Manager, part of my job was budget responsibility, so I took the waste of resources very seriously....and it was brought up at ward meetings.
That is my take on how it used to be, but remember I have been retired for almost 18 years so I cannot say how things are now....but I would guess things are tighter.