Hospital recycling efforts should focus on operating rooms

Last month I wrote in Healthcare Finance News about efforts by hospitals and medical centers to turn their trash into treasure. The intent is to take items out of the waste stream and look for opportunities to recycle them for a profit. But, of course, the greatest financial gain for hospitals is to be had in reducing the amount of trash hauled off to the local incinerator in the first place. 

Focusing on the operating room is critical for any hospital that wants substantial savings from recycling, says Paul Harvey, director of hospitality services at 1000-bed Tampa General Hospital in Florida. Harvey oversees several departments within the hospital, including food services, and helped launch the hospital’s recycling efforts in 2008. 

“One of the biggest contributors to waste is the operating rooms. They generate 25-30% of the entire waste stream,” Harvey said. At Tampa General, that includes 47 separate operating rooms feeding waste into the system. 

“We’re in the business where so much of what we consume is for ‘single use,” Harvey said. “The amount of waste that a hospital generates is tremendous.” 

Since launching its recycling efforts, Harvey said that Tampa General has diverted approximately 10 million lbs. of materials out of the waste stream. That includes standard municipal waste, construction and demolition debris, electronics, grease, and hazardous waste – “a whole bunch of different things.” 

As with Mass. General, Tampa General is looking at its food service operations as another key area to reduce waste and save money. “Food can comprise 8-10% of the waste in a hospital,” Harvey explained.  

For other hospitals that would like to start, or expand, recycling programs, Harvey said the first step is to do a complete assessment of what your waste consists of and where all of it comes from. That process took Tampa General a year to do. 

Once you know what your trash is, where it came from, and how it got there, determine which of it is impacted heavily by behavior rather than necessity. That will give you the first target areas for recycling. 

In the case of Tampa General, that meant a three-phase approach: the nursing stations (“where the rubber really hits the road,” Harvey said); then offices and corridors; and finally garages, outdoor areas, and outside clinics. Tampa General finished the third phase in 2010. Through all of this process the hospital invested in new technology and infrastructure improvements.  

But the biggest factor: “the change in the culture,” Harvey said. “People started just really wanting to change their behavior.”