Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council Develops Plastics Recycling Guide for Hospitals

St. Paul, Minn., April 24, 2013 /3BL Media/ - The Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC) has released a guide with supporting tools intended to help hospitals navigate the process of initiating a plastics recycling program in a patient care setting. Called HospiCyle, this guide addresses the economic, regulatory, resourcing and infrastructure considerations of activating a plastics recycling program in a hospital, from initial planning and business decisions through program implementation and improvement. The focus of HospiCycle is on clean, non-infectious plastic waste materials, as this stream can represent up to 25 percent of a hospitals total waste.

“While hospitals have been champions of recycling for decades, efforts have largely focused on food service and administrative functions. The challenge that hospitals are facing now is how to successfully integrate recycling practices into patient care,” says Tod Christenson, Director of HPRC. “HospiCycle serves as a comprehensive how-to guide for hospitals seeking to advance their sustainability program by recycling plastic product and packaging waste generated in their facilities.”

Topics covered in the guide include how to develop a business case and evaluate financial impacts of program implementation, how to conduct a waste characterization and select an optimal recycling strategy, how to find a recycling partner and assess critical infrastructure requirements, and how to establish metrics and auditing guidelines to drive program improvements. The content of HospiCycle is based on the collaborative experience and technical knowledge of HPRC members along with data, lessons learned and key insight from plastic waste pilot study work conducted with Stanford University Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente, who serve in an advisory role to HPRC.

HospiCycle will launch today, April 24, in conjunction with CleanMed 2013 in Boston, the premiere national environmental conference for leaders in healthcare and sustainability, where a session will be held to introduce the guide to conference attendees. The complete HospiCycle guide is available for viewing and download at www.hprc.org.

About HPRC

HPRC is a private technical coalition of industry peers across healthcare, recycling and waste management industries seeking to improve recyclability of plastic products within healthcare. HPRC is made up of ten brand leading and globally recognized members including Baxter, BD, Cardinal Health, Covidien, DuPont, Eastman Chemical Company, Engineered Plastics Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clark, Perfecseal Inc., and SABIC. The council convenes biannually at meetings hosted by an HPRC member that include facility tours to further learning and knowledge sharing opportunities through first-hand demonstration of best practices in sustainable product and packaging design and recycling processes. For more information, visit www.hprc.org.