Hospitals produce an average of 29 pounds of waste per patient stay. Health care’s complex waste stream is also expensive, with regulated medical waste costing 10 times as much as solid waste. The medical center is committed to preventing waste upstream and managing it appropriately through landfill diversion, recycling, composting and ensuring items end up in the correct waste stream.
- We increased the diversion rate to 38% with efforts such as expansion of recycling infrastructure, collecting new types of clinical plastics for recycling, and food waste reduction efforts.
- Reusable sharps container implementation in FY23 prevented 70 tons of plastic from going to the landfill.
- In fiscal year 2023, the medical center diverted 172 tons of pre-consumer food waste (by using a digester, a machine that converts food to a liquid that drains to a wastewater line), donated 11 tons and composted 31 tons, which resulted in a total of over 200 tons of food diverted from landfills.
Historical diversion rate
Image above: This graph shows the historical diversion rate of waste. It is trending upward yearly, making 2023 the most effective in responsibly diverting waste.