Riverside Waste Machinery, Veolia Environmental Services and Kelpack have helped Derby Hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust achieve significant security, cost and environmental improvements, following investment by the Trust in a new confidential waste management system.
Confidential hospital waste which was previously transported and incinerated off-site to create energy from waste, is now being shredded and recycled in a move which is improving the hospital’s carbon footprint.
Simon Marriott, project manager for Skanska, the hospital’s hard facilities management provider, explained: “Our ongoing aim is to improve the recycling performance of the Trust and divert as much waste away from landfill and incineration as possible.
“We knew that shredding and recycling our confidential waste would improve our environmental performance so we asked our waste and recycling partner Veolia Environmental Services to help us find the best solution. Veolia Environmental Services approached their first-tier supplier Kelpack, which in turn led to a partnership with Riverside and the development of a completely new system”.
Riverside Waste Machinery – the specialist shredding and baling equipment supplier – visited the hospital last year to fully understand and audit the client’s needs. Subsequent consultations and system appraisals led to the development of a one-off complete solution, with Riverside recommending the UNTHA RS30 shredder in conjunction with Kelpack’s 200 model compactor.
The RS30 set the recycling industry alight over 25 years ago when it was introduced as the world’s first four-shaft shredder. Now the 21st century machine has numerous cutter and screen variants which can be individually configured to meet specific client requirements, and the machine’s low cutter rotation speed ensures a very quiet shredding process.
Riverside’s managing director Chris Oldfield said: “Data protection has never been so important. Hospitals are required to comply with the European standard for paper shredder security and must achieve a minimum of DIN level 3. We have strong expertise in the management of clinical waste and were able to recommend and implement the best solution for the hospital to ensure that they met their DIN level obligations. With holes of less than 25mm diameter the UNTHA RS30 shreds items into small confetti-like particles which when combined with the mixing action ensures utmost confidentiality.”
Derby Hospital’s shredded waste now feeds automatically into the Kelpack 200 model compactor which was chosen for its speed and ability to compact to very small volumes. The compacted waste is then taken by Veolia Environmental Services for recycling in the West Midlands before going to a paper mill for re-pulping.
Following the integration of the new shredder and compactor, Skanska and the hospital have seen a number of benefits.
Simon Marriott explained: “We are delighted with the integrated system. All confidential paper is retained within a specially designed portcullis door developed by Veolia – and when the waste leaves the site it is completely illegible. We’ve eliminated the need to store the waste and we are seeing cost savings of 30-35% as we receive a rebate from the paper mill of around £15 per tonne.
“The environmental benefits are also clear to see. Vehicle loads have been reduced as the compacted waste takes up approximately 85% less space. In addition the vehicles no longer have to travel further distances to the incinerator. And as we’ve replaced incineration with recycling, we’re moving up the waste hierarchy and improving our carbon footprint.”
Riverside Waste Machinery and Kelpack continue to support the hospital with a fully-inclusive maintenance and service package. Selected hospital staff have been trained to use the shredder with access only available via a secure key code.
