Bywaters Shortlisted for NHS Sustainability Awards 2017

We are delighted to announce that two of Bywaters’ clients in the healthcare waste management sector, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, have been shortlisted for prestigious NHS Sustainability Awards.

Two Bywaters Clients Make the NHS Sustainability Awards Shortlist

GOSH has been shortlisted in the Reuse category for their efforts in reusing waste rather than sending it to be processed and recycled, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ in the Finance category for cost savings associated with more sustainable waste management.

The winners of the awards are set to be announced on 17^th May at Imperial College London, and we hope to enjoy deserved success after all the hard work that has been put in throughout 2017.

Reuse Category: Great Ormond Street Hospital

Before entering into partnership with Bywaters, GOSH used to dispose of over 5 tonnes of bulk waste and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) every month – with this waste often going to landfill. We recognised that a large portion of these items could be reused, and set about finding a solution.

Now, working with Bywaters’ sustainability managers, a significant number of good quality, unwanted items are being recycled to a network of charities through the use of an innovative new app.

Saving Costs Through Sustainable Waste Management

According to Bywaters’ projections, it is estimated that GOSH will save up to £20,000 a year by cutting disposal costs, while also helping charities such as EMMAUS, The Foodchain, Groundwork, and The Salvation Army.

These improvements have made a huge impact on the sustainability of GOSH’s waste management services, and also makes sure that unwanted items are now making their way to people who actually need them. It is for this reason that GOSH has deservedly been nominated for the Reuse category at the NHS Sustainability Awards.

Finance Category: Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust manages two hospitals in London: Guy’s hospital near London Bridge, and St Thomas’ across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament. Combined, these hospitals produce 5,000 tonnes of waste a year which needs to be streamed effectively and managed sustainably.

Bywaters has been working in partnership with Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in order to reduce the costs of the Trust’s waste management and enable more money to be spent on patient care. To achieve this goal, our approach has been to focus on correcting material segregation and maximising recycling rates.

Training Staff and Improving Onsite Infrastructure

The Trust has over 15,000 staff, and Bywaters now ensure all of these people receive ongoing sustainability training in responsible waste management in order to get everyone contributing to make the hospitals’ waste management more sustainable. These messages are endorsed via news updates, reward programmes and signage.

Since the start of the contract, Bywaters has introduced:

• An on-site weigh-bridge system that acts as a real-time auditing tool
• Bar-coded bins to give accurate data about which wards generate high levels of waste
• Strategic bin placements in underperforming areas to increase the recycling rate

These infrastructure improvements, combined with bespoke training, have enabled waste managers to take steps to maximise recycling rates without diluting service quality, efficiency, and compliance.

We have seen fantastic results from this approach. Recycling across the wards has risen by circa 80 tonnes per month, and the cost savings of these improvements is why the Trust has been nominated in the Finance category of the 2017 NHS Sustainability Awards.

Reusing Materials

As with GOSH, Bywaters has worked hard to increase the amount of Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust’s waste being reused. Unwanted furniture is recycled within the two hospitals as far as possible and any surplus equipment is donated to hospitals in disadvantaged countries across the world, such as Somalia.

Sticking to the proximity principle, recyclable waste is segregated locally at Bywaters’ material recovery facility and non-recyclable waste is transported by barge to Energy from Waste (EfW facilities).

As a result of these, and other initiatives, the Trust has cut its carbon emissions substantially and received a 91% score on the Carbon Trust Waste Standard.

Bywaters are looking to Crown a Successful Year Working with the NHS

We are proud to be tasked with increasing the sustainability of these hospitals’ waste management services. The NHS is one of the world’s great healthcare institutions, and being able to implement sustainable waste solutions and lower costs for such an organisation is humbling.

If Bywaters wins the NHS Sustainability Award in the Reuse and/or Finance category it will a welcome acknowledgement of the great work that we have done in partnership in the past year – and that we will continue doing into the future.