Counties Manukau Health has found a way to recycle 100 kilograms of waste a week from its operating theatres.

It was previously sending the equivalent of 6,700 elephants a year to the landfill.

A new waste segregation system has been the answer, with the masses of packaging used in sterile supplies it goes through now being recycled.

Counties Manukau Health is leading the way in this area in Australasia, and is urging every hospital in New Zealand to follow its lead.