A blue operating cloth, an empty drip bag and latex gloves. In the Jeroen Bosch Hospital (JBZ) in Den Bosch they often disappear together in one garbage bag, while some items can be easily recycled. Anouk Cramer, ‘green assistant’ at recycle company Renewi, therefore regularly grabs the waste to see what could be improved. During the Care Action Week without Waste, she shows how many valuable materials are unnecessarily burned.
“Healthcare is responsible for around four percent of all waste in the Netherlands,” says Lieke Hettema, sustainability adviser at the JBZ. “And burning it causes a lot of environmental pollution. The less residual waste, the less combustion. And the more we separate, the fewer new raw materials are needed for healthcare products.”
In the Jeroen Bosch Hospital, more than a million kilos of waste is created annually. Almost half of it ends up with the residual waste and goes directly to the combustion oven. A small part of it really has to be burned, such as waste with blood, tissue or infusions. But a large part is just to recycle.
“I often literally grab in the waste bags.”
Anouk Cramer works as a ‘green assistant’ at waste processor Renewi. She helps the hospital to separate waste smarter and to waste less. “I often literally grab in the waste bags to see what is still in between that we can just recycle,” she says.
The green assistant brings up a blue canvas: “There are instruments such as scissors and scalpels during an operation. This cloth is good, because there are blood stains on it. But if it is clean, we can simply recycle it into a new one.”
She also gets latex gloves and an infusion bag between the waste. “Many people think that gloves are allowed with the plastic, but they belong to the residual waste. And this infusion bag is made of plastic, but not the kind that we can recycle well. So it has to go away.”
“Separating hospital waste is much more complicated than at home.”
The hospital has already succeeded in reducing the residual waste by twenty percent since 2018. But separating waste sometimes remains difficult. According to Hettema, this is mainly due to work pressure. “Healthcare workers often work under time pressure. Then they prefer to opt for residual waste, because it feels safer. If you throw something wrong in the recycling box, it can cause problems,” she says. “That’s fine, but also a shame.”
Ignorance also plays a role. “Separating waste in the hospital is much more complicated than at home. At home you usually only separate old paper and plastic packaging. But in the hospital you work with other materials. A syringe is made of plastic, but still belongs to the residual waste. That makes it so difficult.”
During the action week, Cremer explains care workers from which waste belongs in which container. She does this by giving demonstrations on the basis of collected waste from the hospital. “I want to show how many valuable materials they can save from the combustion oven,” says De Groene Assistant.
