Relevant resources:

Water:

• Water efficiency online training on technical actions for a hospital-specific Water Conservation Action Plan.
• Uisce Éireann’s Water Stewardship Programme for training on water quality and conservation.
• HSE’s Water Efficiency Guide for Healthcare facilities. The Water Efficiency Guide sets out how to systematically examine water use in your healthcare facility and how to make efficiency changes to save energy and water without impacting services.
• Efficient water fixtures and fittings are saving hospitals both energy and water costs. See examples of more efficient taps in Sligo University Hospital and showers in Cork University Hospital.
• See how tracking and benchmarking your hospital’s water use can lead to identifying and fixing leaks, like at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown.

Hospitals use reverse osmosis to prepare ultra-pure water for applications like sterile services and for dialysis. Find out how to harvest unused water from such systems for reuse elsewhere in your hospital, with an example from Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore.

Waste Management:

Reduce and reuse:

• Bio-systems reusable risk waste containers for Acute vvHospitals.
• Case Study – reusable coffee cups in acute hospitals.
• Posters and a short video clip to promote the use of reusables in healthcare facilities
• Guide for reducing single use plastics

Food waste:

• Training is available on reducing food waste in healthcare, both online and in-person for catering staff.
• The HSE is required to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030 as a public sector obligation. See a guide to reducing food waste in healthcare.
• The EPA national food waste prevention roadmap includes actions on food waste prevention.
• For the EPA’s Food Waste Charter, organisations that sign up commit to tracking and reporting on food waste and taking action on reduction.
• Bin stickers for bins to help food waste segregation.
• Posters to help segregate waste correctly, including for food waste into brown bins, are available.
• Various resources for work and home on www.stopfoodwaste.ie including:
    Eating in season is a great way to reduce the overall environmental impact of what we eat – see the Stop Food Waste Seasonal calendar.
    The A – Z of food which sets out how to store, freeze and prepare all types of foods to help reduce food waste.

Healthcare risk waste:

• Bio-systems reusable risk waste containers for Acute Hospitals.
• Free healthcare risk waste segregation training from Stericycle: – on-line & in-person training – classroom or ward-based
• Training available on reducing healthcare risk waste and costs, contact climate.action@hse.ie
• Guide on good practice in bin placement – how to optimise the types, locations and size of bins in terms of yellow risk waste bins, general waste bins, and recycling bins.
• A list of best practices in Irish hospitals in terms of measures to reduce healthcare risk waste amounts and increase recycling.

Recycling:

• Monthly Training outlining healthcare specific good practices on waste reduction and increasing recycling from observations in healthcare facilities. The overall aim of the training is to provide a non-technical overview of healthcare waste reduction.
• Available to all HSE staff or budget holders in a hospital or community health setting responsible for waste and HSE Green Team members.
• Bin stickers and Posters for recycling bins, general waste bins, and food bins to help show staff how to segregate waste correctly.
• Guide on good practice in bin placement – how to optimise the types, locations and size of bins in terms of yellow risk waste bins, general waste bins and recycling bins.