Waste

Waste in the NHS continues to increase and in 2007/08 waste cost the NHS £71.2 million. As waste created by the NHS continues to rise, both by tonnage and by disposal cost, investment in sound waste management will save money and reduce carbon emissions.

Every NHS organisation should monitor, report and set targets on its management of domestic and clinical waste, including minimising the creation of waste in medicines, food and ICT and review its approach to single use items versus decontamination options.

This section provides information to support waste reduction, with helpful hints, template action plans, best practice examples and a list of useful resources.

Clinical Waste

Disposing of clinical waste costs the taxpayer an estimated £90+ million per annum. Around 40% of that clinical waste is actually likely to be non-clinical material that could be disposed-of at a fraction of the cost, slashing the cost of clinical waste-disposal by around one-third and saving the NHS up to £30 million per annum.

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Measuring & Monitoring

NHS organisations should monitor and record these via the NHS ERIC data system. Organisations should set a baseline year and a set of Board approved waste reduction trajectories.

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Recycling

One in every 100 tonnes of domestic waste generated in the UK comes from the NHS, with the vast majority going to landfill. NHS organisations should aspire to at least match the targets set for the Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE) targets in managing the different waste streams – this includes all departments increasing their recycling figures to 40% of their waste arisings by 2010 and to 75% of their waste arisings by 2020.

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Reduction

NHS organisations should aspire to at least match the targets set for the Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE) targets in managing the different waste streams – this includes reduction in waste arisings by 5% by 2010 and by 25% by 2020, relative to 2004/2005 levels.

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