The NuGreen 4 Stage Approach to improving recycling rates, and reducing costs and carbon emissions

What was the issue?

High waste disposal costs and emissions for the NHS caused by a low level of recycling, unclear waste classification guidelines, suboptimal opportunities to segregate waste, and a lack of waste data.

What action was taken?

NuGreen approached Allison Sathiyanathan, ICB net zero project manager, of the Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB to see if a pilot project of the NuGreen 4 Stage Approach could be trialled at the ICB. As the project is to prove concept, it came at no charge for the ICB or the 3 GP surgeries who signed up. The purpose of the NuGreen 4 Stage Approach is to reduce costs and carbon, and increase the value in resources for the NHS.

Stage 1 of the project commenced in June 2024, where NuGreen counted and recorded every individual item from the waste sample across the clinical, domestic and DMR waste streams at each GP surgery. The sample size from each site represented a typical day in the surgery.

The data was then analysed in stage 2 to identify key impact areas, and design bespoke implementation strategies and educational packages for stage 3.

NuGreen then came back to each site for stage 4, which involves repeating stages 1 and 2 to create a comparative dataset which was used to track sustainable progress.

What was the delivering a net zero NHS benefit?

The project looked to tackle tricky scope 3 emissions, such as waste and the supply chain, by moving operations and practices up the waste hierarchy. Through reducing waste and consumption, improving waste segregation accuracy and alignment to the 20:20:60 clinical waste segregation targets set in NHS Clinical Waste Strategy, the NuGreen 4 Stage Approach saved the GP surgeries on average £529 and 519kg CO2e per tonne of clinical waste.

What are the wider benefits?

The incineration of waste directly impacts air quality, which then impacts public health, which increases strain on the NHS, which then produces more waste, which is treated through incineration. This is a cycle that can be broken through reducing our waste and resource consumption, and disposing of waste into the correct bin so materials can be reclaimed and not unnecessarily incinerated. The project shows that everyone from patients to healthcare workers can have a positive impact on public health.