Data Collection

Collecting Waste Data

Initially, collecting waste disposal and recycling data for your facility may seem like a daunting task, but using this information is a critical part of managing your facility’s waste reduction program. To simplify data collection, your facility should establish a system to collect and record data for all waste streams, including solid waste, hazardous waste, and recycled waste. Your facility should also record data on waste diverted through reuse and donation programs because these can represent significant savings through avoided disposal costs.

Different waste streams are often serviced by different vendors, requiring coordination with each to collect the necessary data. Waste data can be collected from several sources:

• Invoices and receipts
• Manifests
• Tipping slips
• Other records or forms

Key Waste Generation Data

Most of the information that your facility needs in order to analyze waste disposal and recycling trends and the associated costs is readily available. Waste disposal, recycling, and cost information can be obtained from waste haulers and service vendors, as described above. Next, an internal standard of measurement, or metric, should be used to normalize data to account for fluctuations in patient load. With these normalized data, your facility can easily evaluate the cost-effectiveness of waste reduction and recycling programs and estimate the payback for new waste reduction and recycling opportunities.

Converting Volume to Weight

The amount of waste generated at your facility may be reported by weight or volume, depending on the waste type and the waste hauler’s reporting methods. Frequently, solid waste is reported by volume (i.e., dumpster size). That volume needs to be converted to weight using assumed weight conversions. If the same hauler also picks up recyclables at your facility, the volume of recyclable waste would have to be converted as well. To avoid such conversion, your facility can request that waste haulers report actual weights by specifying that in the hauler’s contract with your facility. Other wastes, such as RMW and hazardous waste, are often reported in actual weight. Ultimately, your facility will need to convert all waste generation data to the same unit of measurement, typically in tons or pounds. Practice Greenhealth has helpful conversion charts to assist you with these calculations.

Metric for Normalizing Data

Important Waste Metrics

Using the information above, your facility should calculate important waste metrics, including:

• total waste generated
• disposal cost per ton or pound
• pounds of RMW/solid waste/hazardous waste per adjusted patient day
• pounds of RMW per bed per day
• cost-savings from recycling (also known as cost avoidance)

Several of these metrics are described below:

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For any given month, your facility should know how much of each waste stream, by weight, is being generated. The graph in Figure 1 categorizes waste as: (1) solid waste and recycling; (2) regulated medical waste; and (3) hazardous waste. Tracking this metric will allow your facility to monitor waste generation by type and to take action on noticeable trends, such as an increasing percentage of RMW generation or unexpected spikes in hazardous waste disposal. Trends revealed from this data analysis should be the foundation of your waste management program and be used to set waste reduction and recycling goals.

Cost

To obtain an accurate report of the costs associated with waste generation and disposal, your facility should ensure that all costs associated with waste hauling are accounted for, including container rental fees, pickup fees, transportation fees, fuel surcharges, landfill tipping fees, and other monthly fees.

In addition to knowing how much waste is being generated, your facility should know the associated disposal costs for each waste stream. The graph in Figure 2 illustrates the monthly disposal cost for each waste type as well as the total cost of waste disposal each month. This metric will allow your facility to calculate waste diversion savings through waste reduction and recycling programs and is useful when renegotiating waste disposal contracts.

Recycling (Waste Diversion) and Cost Avoidance

Similar to tracking waste generation, your facility should also know how much is being recycled, ideally by material type, as shown in the graph in Figure 3. This will allow your facility to monitor the success of its recycling program and to calculate savings from recycling, commonly referred to as diversion savings. Diversion savings should include revenue generated from the sale of recyclables and avoided solid waste disposal costs for the recycled materials, as appropriate for your facility. These metrics will allow your facility to maintain a complete balance sheet for its recycling program.

Using Waste and Recycling Data

Maintaining good waste and recycling data can be the most effective tool for managing your facility’s waste reduction program. Specifically, accurate analysis of this data is fundamental to monitoring waste generation and recycling trends and to understanding the associated costs and savings. In addition, accurate analysis of waste and recycling data can be used to effectively communicate program activities, including trends, goals, and the results of implementing new programs, with staff, the public, and your facility’s management team. Data collection can help your facility make informed decisions regarding its waste reduction program, as follows:

Staff and Public Outreach and Education

Waste and recycling data should be used to communicate the successes of your facility’s waste reduction program with staff and the public. Waste and recycling statistics should be regularly shared with hospital staff in newsletters or on bulletin boards to share successes of your facility’s waste reduction program and to encourage continued participation in this program. See samples. Such statistics can also be used to prompt additional education and training, if necessary. Statistics providing an overview of your facility’s recycling efforts can also be displayed on posters in public areas of the facility, such as waiting rooms and the cafeteria, to inform patients and visitors of your facility’s commitment to the environment.

Communication with Management Team

Waste and recycling data should be regularly shared at management meetings to identify issues and strategically target outreach and education. Having this data enables management to investigate causes of negative waste trends, such as increases in waste generation per adjusted patient day, with the support of quantitative data and associated costs.

Strategic Decision Making

Waste and recycling data should be used to help hospital management make informed decisions about your facility’s waste reduction program. For example, if your facility is experiencing an increase in disposal of a particular type of waste, the waste generation data should be monitored to determine the reason(s) for this increase as well as to determine whether additional training on proper waste segregation is needed, whether the proper number of containers is present in the proper location(s), or whether other changes should be implemented.

In addition, waste and recycling data should be used to provide a sound basis for conducting a cost-benefit analysis of new or expanded waste reduction or recycling programs. For example, if your facility is considering purchasing a baler to recycle cardboard, data can be used to determine the amount cardboard currently being thrown away, to estimate the direct cost-savings from recycling, and to determine the time period of investment payback.

Finally, waste and recycling data should be used to better position your facility to renegotiate its solid waste contracts. For example, if your facility’s dumpsters are currently being picked up four times per week and are only three-quarters full, perhaps it would be more cost-effective to have your facility’s dumpsters picked up three times per week when they are actually full, saving pick-up and transportation fees.

Key Resources

Practice Greenhealth Self Assessment Guide
Practice Greenhealth. 2000.
Provides a guide for collecting baseline data on the annual weight of every waste stream leaving the facility and the costs to manage that material, and presents issues to consider when setting goals and action plans.