The 2012 Award, presented at the Green Nephrology Summit yesterday, has gone to Newcastle Renal Unit for their "baling and recycling" project, modelled on one of the early case studies in Green Nephrology.
At the instigation of the renal department, a cardboard baler was installed at the Freeman Hospital in March 2011, which has allowed the Renal Unit’s cardboard to be recycled, and also the cardboard from the whole of the Freeman Hospital site. In November 2011 a smaller twin baler was also installed to crush and bale the segregated 5L acid bottles from each renal dialysis session. Altogether, the project has increased the amount of plastic and cardboard waste being recycled in the Trust by 90 tonnes, resulting in savings of more than £7,000/year and 46 tonnes CO2e in just a few months.
[ibimage==2936==content_image_full_width==none==self==ibimage_float_right]The judges, Beverley Matthews, director of NHS Kidney Care, kidney patient Chris Stait and former Green Nephrology Fellow, Andy Connor, were impressed by the way that the renal unit had been able to effect change across the Trust, to measure the impact and communicate this back to staff.
James Dixon, waste manager at the Freeman Hospital, collected the award on behalf of the team, together with a cheque for £500 to invest in further green initiatives. He said, “It was a great surprise to find out we had won the award. The real thanks must go to modern matron Julia Harding and consultant nephrologist Dr Alison Brown at the Freeman as it was their idea to set up the project and without their drive and enthusiasm we couldn’t have achieved what we did. The prize money will go a long way to help set up similar projects at the renal unit and hopefully go on to increase sustainability of the unit and continue to save the NHS money.”
Green Nephrology will be following up over the next year and look forward to hearing how the £500 is used!
Photo 1: James Dixon, Trust Waste Officer, receiving the award on behalf of the Newcastle Renal Unit, with judges Chris Stait (kidney patient) and Beverley Matthews (NHS Kidney Care).
Photo 2: The new twin baler for crushing plastic bottles from dialysis.
Notes:
All the award entries are now being added to the Green Nephrology case library and will be featured next month in a special edition of Kidney Care Matters.
You can read more about the Newcastle baling project online here or download the poster here.
The Green Nephrology Awards 2012 were run by CSH in partnership with NHS Kidney Care.
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