Copper for Kids: Piedmont Teens Turn Surgical 'Trash' into Hospital Donation

Two Piedmont teens have found a way to keep disposable cables used in surgery out of the trash — and turn them into a handsome donation to Children's Hospital Oakland.

Austin Sun, 17, a senior at Piedmont High, and his brother Jason, 13, an eighth grader at Piedmont Middle School, are recycling the thin copper wire embedded in the cables.

With copper wire bringing well over $2 a pound from recycling companies — and with a "matching grant" for the money they raised from their father, pediatric neurosurgeon Peter Sun, M.D. — they recently donated $1,000 to Children's.

Austin and Jason estimate they have recycled about 200 to 300 pounds of cable in less than a year. All of it came originally from Children's, where the cables — copper or copper alloy wire covered in plastic — are routinely used in surgical procedures. One type of cable, for example, connects a surgical patient to a machine called a pulse oxygen monitor. 

To collect the cables, the brothers have placed bins in several locations in the main hospital and in the outpatient center across the street.

Since the cables are designed for one-time-only use, operating room technicians used to treat them as trash. Now the techs collect them after surgery and toss them into the recycling bins. The part of the cable touching a patient is cut off in the operating room, so there's no biological danger to future users of the recycled material.

The teens visit the hospital every two weeks or so to collect the accumulated cables, then recycle them at Lakeside Non-Ferrous Metals in Oakland. Owner Lance Finkel, a family friend, pays the brothers a bit above the going rate for recycled copper and deals with stripping away the coating.

Austin said they were inspired by a family fishing trip to an area in Alaska where construction of a large copper mine was being considered. 

"When you're seeing bears fishing right next to you and it's very pristine — you want to do your part," he said.

When their father (who practices at Children's) explained how much "used" copper is thrown away by hospitals, Copper for Kids was born.

Both teens have done community service before (Piedmont Community Service Crew and Piedmont Community Church's annual service trip to Mexico for Austin, Boy Scout activities for Jason), but this was the first major recycling project for both of them.

'Like' Piedmont Patch on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter @PiedmontPatch / Share your thoughts in the comments section below