Monitoring recycling services in Health and Social Care settings
Making improvements to your recycling services
As you start to recycle more, the amount of general waste you produce should also reduce. This means you should be able to reduce your number of general waste bins, or have them emptied less often. This could save you money!
If your workplace has seasonal fluctuations, you may need to make changes to your service to suit your needs at these times. Talk to your as soon as you can to find out whether they can make the changes you need.
You can use the feedback you’ve received from both your waste provider and employees to help hone your internal communications on recycling. For example, explaining to staff how to avoid recycling might mean improving signage, offering refresher training or explaining the Dos and Don’ts’ in an email or intranet communication to all staff.
Always keep communication positive, sharing successes and achievements internally via staff communication channels, at team meetings or via posters. Remember to let your senior management, external partners, service users and visitors know, too – this will motivate everyone to continue recycling and encourage them to look for further opportunities for improvement!
Use noticeboards in public areas to share the successes and achievements you’ve gained by service users, residents and visitors using the recycling points you’ve provided.
What next?
Your review waste audit may identify other types of waste your organisation produces that you don’t currently recycle. Can you spot any opportunities to switch to less wasteful products, or refillable ones, so that you can stop the waste being created in the first place?
You could also look into options to recycle a wider range of materials that you’re currently throwing away. For example, if you have health and social care equipment that could be repaired, refurbished or reused, you could make it available to other departments or organisations that could make use of it. Learn more by reading our FAQ.