Planning your Health and Social Care recycling needs
How to conduct a waste audit in Health and Social Care settings
A waste audit is a hands-on review of the different types of waste your workplace produces. It can be conducted at a high level, for example reviewing all waste for a building, or at a more detailed level, for example reviewing waste per department or area.
The idea of a waste audit is to identify where waste is generated in your organisation. With this knowledge, you can take steps to reduce it and ensure your workplace complies with legislation concerning waste handling, storage and disposal.
Undertaking a waste audit will help you to establish:
What types of waste your workplace produces
Where waste is generated in your workplace – whether for the whole building or for each department or process area
Who generates waste in your workplace
Once complete, you can then develop a waste action plan with your priorities and targets for reusing, recycling and recovering your waste.
Good to know
Your existing waste or recycling , if you have one, may be better placed to undertake the audit process for you – especially if your waste may include items that could cause an injury, such as broken glass, , or other potentially .
Health Technical Memorandum 07-01: Safe and sustainable management of healthcare waste provides guidance on the audit process for waste in a healthcare setting in paragraphs 6.94-6.97.
Estates Return Information Collection (ERIC) is a mandatory data collection for all NHS trusts, including Ambulance trusts. It’s made up of a number of data sets, such as data on the costs of providing and maintaining the NHS estate, including costs and tonnages of domestic (and other) waste streams. It provides data on a site basis and by treatment route (recycling, landfill, incineration), and includes domestic waste recycled and disposed of. To minimise the burden on the NHS, ERIC data is collected on the basis of “collect once, use many times” so that everyone interested in the NHS estate has access to the data they need without the need for multiple collections.
To conduct your waste audit, start by downloading the Waste Audit template.
You will need:
A tarpaulin or plastic sheet to tip waste out onto for sorting
Appropriate (PPE) as identified via a (to protect you and your clothes)
Containers for sorting the waste into
Weighing equipment
A pen to record your findings
Your waste audit template
1. Conduct a risk assessment
You should produce a risk assessment before undertaking a waste audit to ensure that you’ve considered and mitigated all risks, such as those entailed by manual handling. Take extra care if your waste is likely to include sharps, clinical waste or other potentially hazardous waste. Ensure that all relevant colleagues are properly briefed on the task before starting the audit, including your Health & Safety officer or team.
2. Collect your waste
Gather your waste, including general waste, all recyclables, food waste and waste from litterbins, if applicable.
3. Sorting
Tip the waste onto your tarpaulin or plastic sheet and sort it into the different material types using your sorting containers. Use the waste audit template as a guide when deciding the number of different material types.
4. Measuring
Weigh each type of waste, remembering to deduct the weight of the container to arrive at the of the material.
5. Recording
Record the date, time and location of your audit and the weights of each material on your form.
6. Repeat twice
Where possible, it’s a good idea to repeat the audit (steps 2-5) twice more (three times altogether) and average your totals. This will provide a more accurate picture of the types and quantities of waste and recycling your workplace produces.
7. Calculate your results
Using the average net weight for each material stream, calculate your annual waste and recycling total. Calculate your annual waste production, for example by multiplying by 52 if you have measured by the week.
Tips for carrying out your waste audit
Choose the right location and date(s) for your audit – the best time to undertake it will be the day before your waste is collected
Secure a suitable area for opening and containers and sorting the waste materials
Keep your audit dates secret so that employees won’t change their behaviour and skew your results, but make sure that cleaners and facilities staff know so they don’t empty the bins.