Trust wins waste reduction award

A local hospital trust has won an award for reducing, reusing and recycling its waste.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLaG) was awarded four out of a possible five stars in the Zero Waste Awards.

Set up in 2010, the Zero Waste Awards scheme has more than 500 members and is the premier recognition scheme for businesses and organisations that are committed to increasing the amount of waste they reduce, reuse and recycle.

Out of the winners, NLaG was the only hospital trust to be included. The entry recognised that the Trust has worked hard, along with its contractors, to achieve zero waste to landfill, with one of the criteria being that waste produced by the Trust is transported no further than a 80-mile radius of the hospital sites. The judges praised NLaG’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact.

Sally Yates, logistics and waste manager, said: “This a fantastic starting point on our journey to reduce waste and increase recycling. Achieving zero waste to landfill is very important as it demonstrates our commitment to making our Trust greener. I must thank my team and all the staff who have helped us get this far. We have a lot of ideas of things we would like to do in the future which will help us get that extra star.”

The Trust’s aspiration is to increase recycling. Some of the ways it is doing this is by encouraging staff to reuse furniture and buy reusable water bottles. Hospital beds that are still in good working order and clinical items such as dressings are sent to Third World countries via a local charity. Any clinical or domestic waste produced by the Trust is either recycled, reused or sent to energy recovery.

The NHS Green agenda is one of the Trust priorities for 2021/22. NLaG will promote, develop and embed the NHS Green agenda, specifically procurement policies, staff energy champions, travel, waste and energy reduction.

As part of this, the Trust will invest £40.3 million from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund – joint Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) – in Green schemes across Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Goole hospitals, including replacing the coal-fired boiler at Goole. You can read the Green plan on the Trust’s website.

The winners will be recognised at a ceremony in November.