Case study 2 February 2020

NHS Blood and Transplant: waste management best practice

The challenge

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) look after blood donation services in England and transplant services across the UK. This includes managing the donation, storage & transplantation of blood, organs, tissues, bone marrow, stem cells, as well as researching new treatments and processes.

Solution

When we took over the contract, we worked with NHSBT to identify improvements that could be made to their waste management practices.

During an audit of their Filton site in Bristol, we discovered that the current recycling situation was confusing for people – there were over 200 communal bins in 28 different styles, none of which were labelled clearly.

Outcome

In order to increase the recycling rate, we needed to remove the confusion and drive behavioural change.

Clearer labelling, improved signage and posters promoting recycling best practice were introduced, and, although through smarter allocation we reduced the number of bin stations by 40%, the recycling rate increased to 70%.

Read next

See Resource Archive