Healthcare facilities are an important part of our society, and it’s hard to imagine a world without them. However, while saving lives and restoring hopes, hospitals, like any other facility, end up leaving a footprint behind. Statistics show that the U.S healthcare industry accounts for nearly 8.5 percent of the total carbon footprint emissions produced by the country.
Regardless of its size, every hospital struggles with waste management. Let’s face it. Hospital waste streams are not just large but also complex. On top of that, it’s not easy to run a facility where everything needs to be top-notch in terms of care, hygiene, and overall quality at all times.
In this article, we will discuss why healthcare facilities have difficulty achieving zero waste and how they can start their zero waste journey.
Types of Healthcare Waste
General Medical Waste
General medical waste is non-hazardous waste. What’s interesting to note about healthcare waste is that only a small percentage of it is hazardous. WHO reports that only 15 percent of the waste generated by healthcare activities is hazardous. The remaining 85 percent of the healthcare waste is generally non-hazardous.
Infectious Medical Waste
This waste poses a great threat to humans, animals, and the environment. It is contaminated with blood and sample waste from patients and laboratories, which may contain infectious diseases.
Hazardous Medical Waste
Hazardous medical waste is dangerous and can cause serious harm. It includes needles, sharps, blades, various chemicals, and solvents.
How is Healthcare Waste Usually Managed?
Incineration
The oldest and most common method for healthcare waste management is incineration — the controlled burning of waste. The process generally involves burning organic waste at a very high temperature. This generates certain gases such as carbon dioxide and toxic chemicals.
Chemical Disinfection
Chemical disinfection treats liquid waste such as blood, urine, and stool. It also kills microorganisms from medical equipment, floor, and walls. The added chemical kills or inactivates the pathogens.
Land Disposal
Land disposal is strictly waste disposal, not a waste treatment method. There are generally two types of land disposal:
Sanitary landfills are designed to dispose of hazardous waste. They’re designed to prevent contamination of soil and surface and groundwater.
Open dumps are unmanaged places where waste is usually scattered, leading to further transmission of infection.
Autoclaving
Autoclaving is the process of treatment in a pressurized state. This method uses an autoclave and is generally used to sterilize reusable medical equipment.
Encapsulation
Encapsulation is the method of disposing of sharps and chemical and pharmaceutical waste. In this process, high-density polyethylene or metallic drums are partially filled with waste, and the remaining portion is filled with mortar, dried, and sealed before disposal. The goal is to reduce the risk of scavengers or stray animals getting their hands on hazardous healthcare waste.
Inertization
The process of mixing healthcare waste with cement and other substances before disposal is called inertization. It’s suitable for pharmaceuticals and incineration ashes with high metal content. Although, inertization is an expensive and not generally recommended process.
Factors Impacting Hospital Zero Waste Journey
Unused Medical Supplies
In hospitals, unused medical equipment such as syringes and thermometers are discarded every minute. A study published by the Journal of Neurosurgery reports that about $968 of medical supplies are wasted in an average neurosurgical OR per procedure. Another study found that within 24 hours, the ER at the Massachusetts General Hospital threw away nearly 200 unused items.
While it may be important to discard some items, hospitals should regard what should and shouldn’t throw away. Reducing the disposal of unused medical supplies can be beneficial for both the hospitals and the environment.
Improper Disposal
A report published by the Massachusetts general hospital found that 85 percent of the waste thrown into the Red Bags was not regulated medical waste (RMW) — waste generated during research, production, and testing of biological or healthcare. Improper disposal of items in the RMW is a great threat to the environment. Every year, these improperly disposed items can cost hundreds of thousands in hauling fees and fines. On the other hand, hospitals can save a significant amount of money if they start sorting their waste properly.
Food Waste
While hospitals produce a lot of medical waste, you may be surprised to know that about 10 to 15 percent of the solid waste generate by hospitals is food waste. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that about 40 percent of the food supply in the United States is wasted, only 4 percent of which is composed. The remaining food waste usually ends up in landfills where it generates methane (a greenhouse gas) that traps 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide.
The best way to utilize the food wasted by healthcare facilities is by redirecting through donation, recycling, or composting. That way, less food goes to the landfills (or is incinerated) and fewer waste disposal trips.
Difficult to Reuse, Repurposed, or Donate Medical Waste
The disposal of bulky and hard-to-recycle items such as large medical devices and lab equipment can be a challenge. Since a lot of medical devices are electronic, a variety of different materials are used, which makes it extremely difficult to recycle.
Many hospitals address this issue by using single-use medical equipment. However, hospitals that are committed to the zero waste goal must opt for products that can be reused or upcycled. Additionally, donating medical equipment can be tricky, but many organizations will accept and distribute gently-used medical equipment to medical teams worldwide.
How are Hospitals Starting their Zero Waste Journey?
In large public facilities, improper sorting and excessive contamination are the biggest challenges to starting a zero waste journey. While material recovery facilities use technology, achieving zero waste goals depends heavily on proper sorting at the time of disposal. This is because recycling rules are not only complex, but they vary from place to place, which leads to confusion among users.
Starting a recycling program can be tricky for a hospital that hundreds or thousands of people visit daily. Smart waste bins like TrashBot can make it easier to start your zero waste journey by sorting waste at the time of disposal. TrashBot also features an analytics dashboard, on-demand waste audits, a built-in screen, and a content management system.
TrashBot was piloted at a Los Angeles hospital, where it impacted over 240,000 visitors during the 3-month performance period. Following are the results of the three-month pilot program:
Reduced contamination in the recycling and compost streams by 95%
300% more accurate sorting compared to conventional trash receptacles
Diversion rates of the hospital increased by 50% by using Trashbot’s data to find the top 5 landfill items and replacing them with compostables
Custom educational content was exhibited on TrashBot
Do you know that most recyclables never get recycled? In the United States, nearly 75 percent of the waste can be recycled, but EPA reports that only about 32 percent of recyclables actually get recycled. This is while people are trying to be more eco-friendly and lead a sustainable lifestyle. The reason behind this huge gap is that people are not entirely sure about what should be recycled and end up wishcycling —recycling based on assumptions.
A great to resolve this issue is by utilizing waste management technology. Smart waste management uses AI and robotics to sort and manage waste with more efficiency and reduces human error. These technologies can help us reach our zero waste goals faster and make this world a better place.
In this article, we will discuss what smart waste management is and the tech innovations that are revolutionizing waste management.
What is Smart Waste Management?
Smart waste management is a modern approach to using technology and data to create a more efficient way to collect and manage waste. Looking at the current situation of the world, the amount of waste production is increasing with population growth. The regular methods of waste collection are inefficient and costly. Smart waste management is a more efficient and cost-effective way to manage trash, help with recycling, and reduce the negative impact of waste on the environment.
How Does Smart Waste Management Work?
Smart waste management systems are generally based on IoT (Internet of Things) technology. The system generally uses sensors to monitor the waste and store data in a central server. The sensors sort and categorize the waste into certain categories and the data is processed and turned into insights that can eventually help companies improve waste management.
Technologies Revolutionizing the Waste Management Process
Waste Level Sensors
The waste collection process that has been going on around the world for many decades isn’t as efficient as before. Today’s increased global population is generating more and more waste every day. There is no way to know when to empty the trash bins. When we don’t have enough information about the bin’s fullness, we can’t change the trash bags at the right time and maintain hygiene.
Waste level sensors tell the collectors where and which trash bin is full. This makes it easier for them to evaluate the timing and bin fullness and eventually maintain hygiene in high-traffic areas.
AI Recycling Robots
A lot of people don’t know what should and shouldn’t be recycled plus recycling rules and regulations are different in different places. When we mix items that should go into different bins, it gets contaminated. For example, a lot of people mix compostables and recyclables. However, if you put a compostable item like coffee grounds into the recycling bin, the whole batch gets contaminated and usually ends up in a landfill.
Many recycling facilities use recycling robots that use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and separate recyclable from non-recyclable trash. It is an efficient way to sort waste and reduce time and labor costs. One company, AMP Robotics, designed a three-arm robot that can analyze and sort 80 items of waste per minute. This is about twice as fast as human sorters, which makes a significantly more efficient recycling process.
Garbage-truck Load Monitoring
The garbage collection process through trucks causes more and more issues every day. Trucks not only contribute to greenhouse gas emissions but also contribute to increased traffic in residential areas.
Putting weighing sensors in the garbage trucks can help predict fill levels and eventually reduce collection trips. Over time, the data can be used to save costs by planning better routes for the trucks.
E-Waste Kiosks
Do you know that electronic waste represents only 2 percent of the trash in American landfills and yet it’s responsible for 70 percent of the toxic waste?
Electric waste management can be quite tricky. Gadgets like smartphones, batteries, and tablets contain hazardous materials like mercury, lead, and arsenic which are hazardous to both humans and the environment.
To address this issue, many companies have started an e-waste program where they accept and even reimburse users for their old devices. Even a recycling company called ecoATM started an e-waste kiosk line that collects and values old electronics and pays the users cash on the spot. The kiosks use smart technology to determine what condition the device is in and the best way to dispose of it
Solar-powered Trash Compactors
Our trash is composed of things of all sizes and colors and we don’t usually think about how much space it takes. A great way to reduce greenhouse emissions from the garbage truck is to reduce the size of your trash and how frequently it is collected. A solar-powered trash compactor is a solution to this problem. It can hold much more trash than a traditional bin and uses solar power instead of other fuel sources like fossil fuel.
Smart Waste Bins
Most technologies are managing waste after it has been disposed of. However, the best way to dispose of and sort waste is at the point of disposal. Improper waste management at the point of disposal is one of the biggest threats to recycling. It contaminates the waste and often the entire batch goes into the landfill.
Smart waste bins like TrashBot solve this issue by automatically sorting waste as soon as it is thrown into the bin. It sorts the waste using AI, computer vision, and robotics with up to 300% more accuracy.
How does TrashBot revolutionize waste management?
Waste sorting at the point of disposal.
Cost-efficient recycling.
User recycling education via a large built-in screen and content management system.
For the recycling industry, wishcycling is a nightmare. Waste that isn’t properly separated and cleaned requires extra labor and can contaminate the entire recycling stream. That way, even when someone is aspiring to be good, they end up creating even more waste.
In this article, we will discuss what Wishcycling is, why it’s bad for recycling, and how to put a stop to it.
What is Wishcycling?
Wishcycling is the practice of putting things in your trash and expecting that they will be recycled even though recycling rules clearly state that they wouldn’t. Some people call it “aspirational recycling” because they are hoping or assuming that something is recyclable when it isn’t.
What Makes Wishcycling Bad for the Environment?
What makes wishcycling bad for the environment is that most people don’t know what should or shouldn’t be recycled. They dump recyclables with nonrecyclable items, which contaminates the recyclables. Contamination reduces or eliminates the quality of the materials and most of it ends up in landfills. Katie Tyson Higdon, the COO, and co-founder of Hive said:
“Aspirational recycling costs financially strapped recycling facilities more money to process the waste that they can’t recycle.”
How is Wishcycling Harming the Recycling Industry?
Did you know that according to the EPA, 75 percent of our waste stream can be recycled? However, only 32 percent is actually recycled. This has less to do with people not wanting to recycle and more with recycling being done the wrong way.
People are confused about what should and shouldn’t be recycled and end up mixing recyclables with non-recyclable items that they think to belong together. For example, many people assume that recycling and composting are the same things while they are not. When we mix recyclables with compostables, we end up contaminating the entire waste stream.
Wishcycling leads to a waste of time, money, and resources, so much so that it poses a serious threat to the recycling industry. Our waste stream is processed at a material recovery facility (MRF), but no two MRFs are the same. Adding items that cannot be recycled to your recycling stream means that nothing gets recycled until the equipment runs again.
Shutting down and restarting the process is not just expensive but happens way too frequently. If recycling becomes too uneconomical, local governments will start rethinking it. Sorting our waste properly is the best way to keep recycling affordable.
Why are People Wishcycling?
What do we do when they don’t know the answer to something? Go with our best guess and it usually works, but not when it comes to recycling. The Pew Research Center found that about 59 percent of Americans believe that most items can be recycled and that their miscellaneous recyclables are sorted efficiently later. Unfortunately, going with your best guess is the worst way to recycle.
If you’re uncertain about what to recycle, then dig a little deeper and start sorting your waste stream efficiently in the first place. Don’t wish for the recycling facility to sort the waste for you, because it’s likely contaminated and will end up in the landfills.
How to stop Wishcycling?
Educate at the Point of Disposal
The biggest reason behind wishcycling is the lack of proper recycling education. And the best place to tell people what to put where is right is when they’re about to dispose of something.
Smart bins like TrashBot can help educate people on recycling by showing relevant information on their built-in screens. Each TrashBot comes equipped with a built-in content management system and screen that can be used for advertisement or to educate the public about recycles.
Learn Your Local Recycling Rules
What makes recycling more confusing is the different recycling rules in different parts of the world. In every region, the recycling rules are slightly different, which is why it’s important to learn your local rules and guidelines given by authorities. That way, you will know what can and cannot be recycled and bring yourself one step closer to stopping wishcycling.
Know the Recycling Dos and Don’ts
An important step to stop wishcycling is by knowing the dos and don’ts of recycling. The following table lists some common recycling dos and don’ts:
Recycling Dos
Recycling Don’ts
Cardboard
Food residue
Paper
Garden greens
Aluminum cans
Diapers
Plastic disposables
Items smaller than three inches
Tissues, napkins, paper towels
Make Sure Your Recyclables are Clean and Dry
Even putting the right items in the recycling bin can go in vain if everything is not clean and dry. Dirty items can contaminate other items in the bin, which decreases or eliminates the value of recyclables. Before putting anything in the recycling bin, make sure that your recyclables are clean and dry. Anything greasy or oily will ruin the whole batch and it will all go to waste.
When in Doubt, throw it in the Trash
The golden rule of recycling is to put anything that you’re unsure about into the trash bin. That way, you will be avoiding wishcycling and saving the whole batch from being destroyed.
Reduce Your Waste
Finally, recycling is just one step towards saving the environment. The best way to move forward is by reducing the amount of waste that you generate in the first place. Start using reusable items and avoid using disposable items that create more waste.
Take the First Step Towards Smart Recycling
Stopping wishcycling is as simple as putting the right item in the right bin. Here are five things we often get wrong that you can stop today.
Pizza box goes into the recycling bin BUT remove all food residue and sauces before.
Coffee cups do not go into the recycling bin and can sometimes be returned to the coffee shop.
Ceck the local recycling rules about ready-to-eat meal boxes. Clean the plastic container and put it in the recycling bin and put the plastic film in general waste.
CleanRobotics and Shine Music are excited to announce their partnership to make recycling more inclusive and accessible at the Shine Music Festival this August 27th, 2022, at Denver’s Civic Center Park.
Shine Music Festival, combines the staples of a typical music festival, comprehensive accessibility plans, and cutting-edge adaptive technology, to create barrier-free spaces that allow people of all abilities the opportunity to share in the groove together. To ensure everyone can attend, the event is free admission.
“We struggled to find a recycling solution that was easy to use, effective, and accessible for all. Until we discovered CleanRobotics’ TrashBot – a solution that allows everyone to participate in taking care of our planet, regardless of ability,” states Shawn Satterfield, Shine Music’s Founder and President. “While brainstorming on how to expand the universal design plans from last year’s event, we realized how non-accessible traditional recycling solutions are”.
TrashBot is a smart recycling bin that diverts recyclables from landfill, organic, and contaminated items while eliminating human error at the point of disposal, which makes it the ideal solution for large events where people dispose of waste without a second thought. Additionally, TrashBot is ADA compliant and features a large display and sound system to make recycling accessible and easier for everyone.
“We immediately fell in love with the mission behind Shine Music Festival and knew we had to get involved,” shared Charles Yhap, CleanRobotics CEO. “We believe smart waste management should be easy and available to everyone, so our partnership with Shine makes perfect sense because of their outstanding work on inclusion and accessibility,” added Charles, who will be personally attending the event with his family from Longmont, CO.
If you are in the Denver area and would like to assist or volunteer at Shine Festival next August 27th, you can find more information at www.shinemusicfestival.com; their extensive accessibility plan will make everyone feel welcome and included.
Airports are some of the busiest places in the world. Considering how hundreds of thousands of people from everywhere around the world visit the airport, it produces tonnes of trash on a daily basis. This is why airport recycling can be a gigantic step towards a green future. To become a zero waste facility, airports must focus on maximizing recycling and recovery and minimizing waste generated onsite.
Pivoting from the traditional landfill-centric system requires airports to make strategic changes around the facility. The US government recently announced a $1 billion grant to 85 airports across the country. The grant is supposed to help airports meet the post-pandemic passenger demand and deal with the uptick in delayed and canceled flights. This initiative will go to expand terminal capacity, provide access to individuals with disabilities, and sustainability among others.
In this article, we will discuss zero waste and its importance, the problem with airport recycling, and its potential solutions.
How Much Waste Do Airports Generate?
With millions of travelers visiting the airports every day, the airports must generate a ton load of waste, but the question is exactly how much waste do airports generate?
The San Francisco Airport (SFO) is one of the busiest and largest airports in the United States. Annually, it generates about 14,000 tons of material waste from which about 28 million pounds are recyclables and compostable materials. An average guest at the San Francisco Airport generates about half a pound of trash, and the numbers are not much different for other airports.
To bring about change, airports need to set a zero waste goal and work towards a green future. The San Francisco Airport set out to become the world’s first zero waste airport. It means that the airport needs to divert at least 90 percent of the generated waste away from landfills and incinerators.
Although we discussed the SFO in detail, it’s not the only airport to have a zero waste goal. More airports are jumping into the same goal such as Charlotte Douglas Airport (North Carolina, USA) and Gatwick Airport (London). To understand why so many airports are making such significant changes, we need to understand what zero waste is, the problem with airport recycling, and its solution.
What is Zero Waste?
The Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA) defines zero waste as,
“Zero Waste: The conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.”
— Zero Waste International Alliance
The next question is,why achieving zero waste is important. The zero waste approach starts from the very top i.e. manufacturing (manufacturing fewer goods) to the very bottom, i.e. reducing waste that goes into the landfills.
The Problem with Airport Recycling
A waste audit of the San Francisco Airport revealed that despite their efforts to recycle and reduce waste, a great deal of recyclable and compostable items were still ending up in the bin headed for the landfills. The whole point of the three-bin system fails if the trash consistently went into the wrong bin.
Did you know? Less than 35% of what goes into recycling bins actually ends up being recycled. That is because people are still unsure about what goes into which bin. It all starts with educating the user, but that is a huge challenge for a large facility welcoming people that come and go every hour of the day. The problem worsens when you have people traveling from everywhere around the world and throwing garbage away without much of a second thought.
For the team at SFO to succeed at reaching their zero waste goal, they need to be able to efficiently sort the trash.
The Step-by-Step Approach to Establishing an Airport Recycling Program
To help airport managers create a more environmentally-friendly waste operation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designed a ten-step guide to airport recycling.
Step 1: Obtain the upper management commitment Step 2: Create a green team Step 3: Identify types and sources of waste through a waste audit Step 4: Assess and evaluate your current waste programs and collection contracts Step 5: Develop a waste management plan Step 6: Implement educational programs for the facility’s public and staff Step 7: Implement sustainability and zero waste technologies Step 8: Measure performance and refine the plan over time Step 9: Promote successes Step 10: Expand the recycling program further
The Ultimate Solution to Airport Recycling
An innovative and complete solution to airport recycling is smart bins that divert at the point of disposal while educating the transient population.
We never think twice before throwing away that disposable water bottle or coffee cup that we grabbed on the way. So, we can’t expect people to think twice about trash when they’re already late for their flight. To combat the issue, we need something that automatically sorts trash as soon as it goes into the bin and before it can contaminate other items.
A smart recycling bin like TrashBot is a bin that leverages technologies like AI, computer vision, smart sensors, and robotics to sort trash quickly and more efficiently. It’s the ideal solution for the airport recycling problem because the management will no longer be relying on the travelers to put trash in the right can. Rather, the user can dispose of their item, and the smart recycling bin will automatically sort it into the right bin inside.
Here’s how a smart recycling bin works:
As soon as an item lands in the sensor chamber, it will automatically detect and recognize it through AI and machine learning.
The recycling bin will divert the item into the corresponding bin (recycling and/or organic) and send the contaminated items into the landfill.
The bin will also monitor its internal capacity and notify (via SMS or email) the custodial team when it’s full.
Airport Recycling with Smart Bins
With the glaciers melting, wildfires erupting, and temperatures rising around the world, climate change is becoming more and more real every day. A smart recycling bin can be a game-changing instrument that has the potential to solve the airport recycling problem. A smart bin like TrashBot can sort trash three times more accurately than humans and keeps improving gradually. It offers features such as AI-powered trash sorting, an analytics dashboard, mobility, and a built-in display that make both recycling and recycling education easier.
