Over the past few years, “sustainability” has evolved from being a buzzword to becoming a way of doing business. Many companies have a clear understanding of what it means to buy and market sustainable products, but now companies are turning their attention to what it means to operate a sustainable facility. Waste management is one area that is receiving a lot of attention as a way for healthcare facilities to become more sustainable.

Every business creates waste, and many accept the myth that producing waste is part of doing business, but Andrew Shakman, CEO of LeanPath, is challenging that notion. He believes that through better waste management, businesses can not only drastically reduce waste, but in some cases also actually profit from it.

Consider the waste an average four-person household generates in a week. Now compare that with a healthcare facility that is responsible for feeding hundreds of patients three meals a day, preparing meals for catered events, and making meals available to the staff and guests who walk through its halls every day. The amount of waste an average healthcare facility creates is staggering. However, Shakman points to several areas where foodservice waste can be tamed.

Three Types of Healthcare Foodservice Waste
According to Shakman, there are three categories of healthcare foodservice waste: pre-consumer waste, post-consumer waste, and supplies and packaging waste.

Pre-consumer waste is defined as food waste that’s in the controlled custody of the foodservice department, such as overproduced items, foods that have been dropped, burned or spoiled, as well as trim waste from fresh fruits and vegetables.

“Pre-consumer waste accounts for 4 to 10 percent of the food that’s purchased in an operation,” says Shakman. “A lot of this is avoidable or re-capturable.”

The second category is post-consumer waste, or anything that is left on a patient’s plate, what remains at the end of a catered event, or anything thrown away by a hospital café patron. This type of waste typically results when a patient is not hungry, is served a portion that is too large or if the food looks unappealing.

The last category is supplies and packaging waste, defined as any disposable items thrown away, such as drink cups, grab-and-go containers and plastic ware. Some industry research estimates post-consumer and packaging waste can account for as much as 30 percent of a healthcare facility’s foodservice waste.

The First Step Is to Test the Waters
Implementing a waste-management program can seem like an overwhelming task, but Shakman suggests taking a test-and-learn approach.

“You have to put your toe in the water,” he says. “Find an area that’s most doable for you, given your organization’s unique requirements and the parameters you’re working within. You don’t have to do it all on day one, but the key is to start doing something. Learn from that, course correct and keep going.”

As a first step, Shakman recommends conducting an audit to determine a facility’s current waste-management practices. He also admits there are several things than can be started immediately, such as recycling cardboard and fryer oil.

“Recycling cardboard and fryer oil are two areas where healthcare facilities can reduce waste and get paid for it,” says Shakman. “These are easy strategies to implement and they generate revenue.”

A next step is to track waste so you have a benchmark of comparison for waste-management efforts. Shakman says that companies that don’t have a control in place are essentially flying blind. He explains there are several methods to track waste. For example, LeanPath offers ValueWaste Tracker, a stainless steel scale with an attached touch-screen terminal that allows foodservice and hospital staff to quickly measure pre-consumer food waste before it’s thrown into the trash. Simply writing everything down before it’s thrown away will also provide a benchmark.

“You have to measure anything you want to improve. Companies count their revenues every day. Otherwise, they wouldn’t know how much they made,” says Shakman. “By tracking waste, healthcare facilities are essentially doing the same thing. Accurately measuring waste enables them to determine how they can best reduce it.”

Reducing Post-Consumer and Packaging Waste
Healthcare operations have the most control over pre-consumer waste. It also represents the largest opportunities for waste reduction, but in order to implement the most effective waste-management program, post-consumer and packaging waste shouldn’t be ignored.

While it can’t be implemented over night, Shakman points to a room-service-style patient delivery system as an effective way to limit post-consumer waste. Patients who order the food they want when they want it are going to be less likely to discard food items.

One simple step in reducing packaging waste is for healthcare operations to contact their suppliers to discuss how they can get products delivered in the most efficient way. For example, rather than receiving pallets with 20 boxes of the same product wrapped in shrink-wrap, healthcare facilities can request that the products be packaged in a less wasteful way.

Practical Advice for Reducing Waste
Shakman provides several practical tips to help healthcare foodservice operations reduce waste. He suggests that decreasing waste in catering operations can have a significant impact.

“Catering is often an area where waste minimization can make a difference, because healthcare facilities often produce to a guaranteed count. But that guarantee is often not consistent with the number of people showing up,” he says. “Tracking catering waste gives facilities the ability to go back to their catering customers within the hospital and its administration to find efficiencies.”

Patient services is another area where significant improvement is possible.

“If healthcare facilities can improve communication between dietary and nursing, they can save a lot of waste,” he explains. “When a patient gets discharged, is out for tests or has a dietary change, foodservice is often preparing food for the patient that isn’t necessary or that requires a late tray.

“Tracking the number of misordered trays and the reasons why they’ve been misordered can allow healthcare facilities to bring some evidence back to nursing to show where things are on the mark and where they need to be improved. It can also allow for some good partnerships where historically there hasn’t been a lot of dialogue.”

Real Benefits
Healthcare facilities that focus on waste management experience real, tangible benefits. Aside from the environmental impacts, such as lowering greenhouse gas emissions and cutting petroleum-based impacts as a result of transporting waste to landfills, Shakman explains that healthcare facilities can save 2 to 4 percent on food costs. Depending on the size of the facility, that number is more than a mere drop in the bucket.

Since healthcare food-waste management is still in its infancy, healthcare facilities could face a few challenges along the way. However, Shakman believes the greatest challenge is simply deciding to focus on the issue.

“There are many things healthcare facilities can focus on, so it’s about taking a step back and looking at this to see that it represents one of the only opportunities in a healthcare foodservice scenario to reduce costs and improve the environment without lowering quality or creating negative impacts for staff or patients,” he says. “It’s a win-win.”

For more information, contact:
LeanPath, 503-620-6512 or www.leanpath.com
Hospitals for Healthy Environment, 603-795-9966 or www.h2e-online.org
Healthcare without Harm, 703-243-0056 or www.noharm.org/us
EPA’s Waste Wise, www.epa.gov/wastewise/

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