Hospitals and Health Care Facilities
Resources for Environmentally Responsible Medical Waste Management

Facilities can use a best practices approach
The Green Guide for Health Care™ provides a "best practices" guide for facilities interested in reducing incineration of medical waste as well as the volume of medical waste generated. There is a growing movement toward healthier, more environmentally friendly management of health care facilities. The Green Guide supports those efforts.

Join Practice Greenhealth
Practice Greenhealth is a nonprofit membership organization founded on the principles of positive environmental stewardship and best practices by organizations in the healthcare community. www.practicegreenhealth.org

Key resources for keeping incineration to the bare minimum:

• Technology alternatives to incineration
• Alternative technologies approved for use in NC
• Non-Incineration Medical Waste Treatment Technologies: A Resource for Hospital Administrators, Facility Managers, Health Care Professionals, Environmental Advocates, and Community Members   Source: Health Care Without Harm
• Global Inventory of Alternative Technologies Non-burn technologies for the treatment of infectious wastes.   Source: Health Care Without Harm
• Waste reduction, segregation and recycling
• Ten Steps to Reducing Regulated Medical Waste   Source: Hospitals for a Healthy Environment
• Getting Started: Establishing a Waste Reduction Program   Source: Practice Greenhealth
• Waste Reduction Activities for Hospitals   Source: California Integrated Waste Management Board
• Case Studies in Waste Reduction   Source: Waste Reduction Resource Center
• "Greening" Hospitals: An Analysis of Pollution Prevention in America's Top Hospitals   Source: Health Care Without Harm and The Environmental Working Group
• The current medical waste stream in health care facilities:
• H2E Self-Assessment Guide   Source: Hospitals for a Healthy Environment
• Evaluating the Current Status of Your Health Care Facility   Source: Sustainable Hospitals
• NC DENR Medical Waste presentation
• NC DENR Medical Waste Management Flowchart for Institutional Waste

"Some hospitals have taken steps to reduce their use of potentially toxic materials and to decrease the total volume of incinerator waste. A waste reduction program at the Fletcher-Allen Health Care System in Vermont reduced the volume of regulated medical waste at one campus by 75% in a few months. Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City saves $600,000 per year through improved waste management systems. There is thus potential for medical facilities to decrease the need for incineration while also saving costs." Source: Sustainable Hospitals