2023-05-14 15:53:44
Disposable tableware, small packaging and leftover food are just some of the waste generated in hospitals.
Photo: imago/Jochen Tack
In 2019, i.e. before the pandemic, 1400 kilograms of waste were produced per hospital bed in Germany. That is almost three times as much as is caused by a single household in one year. In the almost three years with masks and protective clothing, it should have been even more. When it comes to water consumption, the amount per bed is 2.5 times as large as a private person needs. Just as much energy is required for an occupied hospital bed as for a single-family house. The bottom line is that the healthcare sector is responsible for almost five percent of global CO2-emissions responsible. Hospitals account for most of the emissions.
Now it’s not enough to castigate high resource consumption, it’s about finding ways to act sustainably. This was the aim of the »WeACT Con« congress, which took place in Berlin last week. Representatives from politics, health insurance companies, pharmacies, clinics and doctors exchanged views on the necessary transformation.
The graduate engineer and trained nurse Annegret Dickhoff has been working full-time on the sustainability of hospitals in recent years. »Klik green« was the name of the project initiated by the German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation BUND. It ran for three years and was continued in 2022 under the same name, only with an appended plus sign. »Klik« stands for climate protection in clinics. Dieckhoff recently switched from the environmental organization to the staff unit for sustainability and processes at the BG clinics. These are the medical care facilities of the statutory accident insurance.
So far, 210 hospitals have been involved in “Klik green” and 190 people have been qualified as climate managers. A database contains around 1,600 measures in the area of energy saving and resource protection. Funding comes from the Federal Ministry for Climate and Economic Affairs. For a third of the measures, the hospitals have to spend money, the rest is more about organization or training. Dickhoff gives examples, including job bikes as one of 70 measures in the field of mobility or more environmentally friendly catering, i.e. less meat and more vegetarian dishes. »In the Brandenburg University Hospital, disposable tableware was abolished and four tons of CO2-Equivalents saved. For comparison: every single European causes an average of one CO per year2-Output of nine tons.’
There are also many ways in hospitals to save paper, starting with printing out documents on both sides or using recycled paper. A total of 250,000 tons of climate-damaging greenhouse gases were avoided in the first three years of the initiative.
Purchasing has a great deal of responsibility for sustainability in hospitals. For example, gloves that are more tear-resistant, albeit more expensive, could reduce consumption. »Or during operations: large sets of materials are not always necessary. To ensure that these are packed as required, the staff only has to be trained accordingly.«
“We shouldn’t talk about rubbish, but about waste and recyclable materials,” explains Clemens Jüttner at the beginning of the topic. The former paramedic and fireman has been working in the commercial sector for a long time; Today he is the Chief Sustainability Officer (German: Senior Sustainability Manager) at Sana-Kliniken AG. However, Jüttner knows that in hospitals it is primarily about quality and cost-effectiveness, sustainability as a corporate goal is only just anchored.
Jüttner also focuses on purchasing: 2.2 million items are in the procurement system of the Sana Group. Because the industry has also recognized the climate protection trend, clinics receive many inquiries and offers. “Here it is important to identify the truly sustainable products,” says the manager. But the legal situation does not allow the procurement of environmentally friendly product alternatives if these lead to additional costs. There is also no information on the environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions for more than 90 percent of the items on the shopping lists of hospitals and medical practices. Another problem is the 15 million disposable instruments that are thrown away in Germany every year.
While the hospitals are already good at recycling glass waste, there are problems with the mixed waste after operations and the high proportion of household waste. The many food leftovers could already be reduced, says Jüttner: For example, fasting days before operations and discharge processes would have to be taken into account. That is a lot of detailed work and difficult because kitchens often no longer belong to the hospitals, but have been outsourced.
When they hear the keyword hospital waste, laypeople first think of consumables: bandages, gauze, diapers soaked with bodily fluids. “It’s contaminated waste, so it’s expensive,” explains Jüttner. “The clinics have had this in mind for a long time. But this part is difficult to reduce.« The route usually leads to waste incineration.
In the discussion at the Berlin Congress, the participants agreed: the employees want to save resources. Younger people would want to work less and less in non-sustainable companies. In addition, sustainability is not made by climate managers, but is a joint task of employees and patients. On the other hand, jobs are needed here, volunteering is not enough. It is still unclear how existing solutions can be brought to the entire healthcare sector.
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