Hospital helps to cut waste
Palmerston North Hospital has huge potential to help the city cut down the amount of potentially recyclable waste it is sending to landfill, and has made a start.
The hospital was criticised by Midcentral District Health Board member and city councillor Karen Naylor for not even providing people with recycling bins for paper.
She made the accusation when councillors were debating a draft waste minimisation plan, and urged council staff to work more with the city’s large institutions like the hospital, to do better.
Deep inside the hospital’s carton-packed distribution centre, the task is already under way.
Materials management co-ordinator Karl Anthony said cardboard was an easy target to start with. In the past year, the hospital has recycled 23,254 kilograms of cardboard alone, filling a large cage with broken-down cartons twice a day.
It is taken away by the Oji Fibre Solutions Fullcircle recycling service for the small cost of renting the cage.
Cardboard recycling had been extended to the whole hospital in the past three months.
‘‘The savings are huge. It would be such a waste of money to send it to the landfill. We are looking at savings for the taxpayer as well as looking after the planet.’’
The board’s facilities and estate manager Liam Greer said a sustainability strategy was developed in July aiming to reduce resource use, maximise efficiency and minimise harm.
Midcentral was working with contractor Spotless to make improvements, and was recruiting for a sustainability officer to lead the efforts.
Other items recycled included printer toners and cartridges, batteries, scrap metal, computers and monitors, aluminium anaesthetic cartridges, PVC infusion and irrigation bags, oxygen face masks and tubing, and paper and plastic.
City council recycling bins had been introduced to several parts of the hospital, and more were on the way.