UG4 Greener sexual health: increasing awareness and engagement with recycling in an integrated sexual health service

Abstract

Introduction

Healthcare is one of the largest contributors to the UK’s carbon footprint. The NHS has a target for net zero emissions by 2040, with improved waste recycling. Literature demonstrates need for greater engagement with recycling: one audit found over 40% of all hospital waste is recyclable. Despite this, recycling is not commonplace in healthcare settings.

Methods

We started our project with a GEMBA walk, evaluating the patient journey through the department and identified areas we could make greener. We then surveyed staff, asking what was the most important and sustainable project, identifying recycling. We began our quality improvement project by gathering information about commonly recyclable items, before educating staff during a department-wide teaching session. Following this, we introduced educational posters to reinforce knowledge and prompt staff to recycle. After each intervention, we weighed the recycling and assessed understanding with a quiz.

Results

There was an increase in knowledge of recycling amongst staff; 84% correctly identified recyclable items compared to 47% before the teaching. So far, we have observed no significant increase in weight of the recycling bins with weekly averages of 2kg to 2.1kg.

Discussion

There was an increase in recycling knowledge despite the recycling weight being unchanged. At the beginning of our project we observed non-recyclable items being disposed of in the recycling. Therefore, a static weight may reflect positive change in practice. Findings demonstrated barriers to recycling included lack of bins. Our next intervention will be increasing the recycling bin availability, to make changes more accessible and sustainable. We observed wide variations in recycling information printed on medical packaging, and believe this is something that should be systemically changed. Recommendations from this project are to increase access to recycling bins, increase clarity of recycling information on products and make recycling data more available to clinics to monitor sustainability over time.