The Cardiff Royal Infirmary West Wing was the first to implement the government’s new code of practice on the disposal of healthcare wastes. Instead of sending 24 wheelie bins to landfill every week, the hospital now only fills six, with the rest getting recycled.
“Most recently we implemented the scheme at Whitchurch Hospital, where we saw a reduction in the daily collections of domestic waste from three to two,” Terry Hay, a senior waste adviser for the trust, has said.
“Instead of sending waste for incineration, we now use heat disinfection, which is cheaper and environmentally more friendly.”
The scheme is to be rolled out across all of the trusts nine hospitals, with Barry Hospital next on the agenda. The trust says this is a big project that involves training all ward staff to use the new system, from department heads through to nursing auxiliaries, housekeepers and porters.
If all sites are as successful as West Wing, the trust could reduce its waste by thousands of tonnes every year.
