Solid Waste Disposal

Watching Your Waste

After your facility disposes of solid waste, it is likely that the waste is never thought of again. Unfortunately, throwing waste “away” does not mean that it just vanishes. There are both environmental and financial impacts of solid waste disposal. Disposing of less waste by implementing various waste reduction and recycling efforts can help ease environmental impacts in your community as well as provide real cost savings to your facility. Waste is a wasted resource: the more waste that is disposed of, the greater the cost to your bottom line and the environment.

Beyond minimizing what waste your facility generates and disposes of, actively managing your facility’s solid waste disposal contracts can enable you to better monitor the financial impacts of waste disposal and facilitate data collection, as discussed below.

Solid Waste Disposal Contracting Options

There are two types of contracts that hospitals typically have with solid waste haulers: service-based contracts and pay-as-you-throw contracts. Service-based contracts are most common because they are more easily administered by solid waste haulers; however, pay-as-you-throw contracts better enable hospitals to accurately track solid waste generation and disposal and the associated costs, and to use this data to report cost-savings from waste reduction and recycling programs.

Service-Based Contracts

Under service-based contracts, health care facilities pay a fixed fee per month or per pickup, regardless of the weight or volume of the dumpster. This type of contract is easier for the waste hauler to manage, but it is more difficult for your facility to truly know how much waste is being disposed. Weight estimates can be calculated using standard solid waste conversion factors; however, your facility must make assumptions about how full dumpsters are at the time of pickup.

If your facility has a service-based contract, consider the following:

• During your facility’s next contract negotiation, require the solid waste hauler to report actual disposal by weight, which would allow your facility to better calculate the true cost per ton of waste disposal.

• Monitor how full dumpsters are when the waste hauler picks them up. If the dumpsters are only a quarter or half full, decrease the frequency of pickup to decrease your facility’s costs.

• Monitor changes in quantities of solid waste generated by your facility. In some instances, facilities may realize seasonal differences in the number of inpatients stays, such as an increase of illness and injury during winter months, and therefore an increase in waste generation. Solid waste service should reflect this change in patient load.

• Re-evaluate waste generation after implementing waste reduction and recycling programs. After your facility implements a waste reduction or recycling program or significantly expands an existing program, the quantity of solid waste being disposed may decrease, and the frequency of waste pickup may need to be adjusted accordingly.

• If the waste hauler also provides recycling services, request dedicated containers or dumpsters for high-volume recyclable commodities. For example, cardboard is a bulky material that can be easily segregated for recycling. urthermore, it is more easily segregated at the source because it is typically generated in high volumes in a few locations of your facility, such as shipping and receiving. Paper is another material that may be easily segregated for recycling from administrative areas. If the waste hauler collects recyclables, request that the hauler report the weight of these items as well.

Pay-as-You-Throw Contracts

Under a pay-as-you-throw contract, hospitals are charged based on the actual amount of waste disposed. This provides a direct incentive to reduce solid waste. The lower the amount of waste disposed of, the lower the cost. This type of contract also allows for easy data collection because the waste hauler will report the actual weight of waste being disposed of. Therefore, this is the ideal type of solid waste contract for health care facilities. Consider specifying this as a requirement during your next solid waste contract negotiation.