The carbon footprint of waste streams in a UK hospital

This article by CSH's Sustainable Surgery Fellow, Chantelle Rizan, and co-authors, provides greenhouse gas emission factors for the different healthcare waste streams in the UK.

Highlights:

• Clinical, anatomical and medicinal waste streams have highest carbon footprint.
• The choice of waste stream has an up to 50-fold impact on the carbon footprint.
• Waste streams with lowest estimated carbon footprint have lowest financial costs.

Chantelle Rizan, Mahmood F.Bhutta, Malcom Reed, Rob Lillywhite. The carbon footprint of waste streams in a UK hospital. Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 286, 1 March 2021, 125446 (available online from 11 Dec 2020)