America's Best Hospitals, Green Edition

Greening of Hospitals

Great article. I would like to see the stats on how much recycling is done through out the natione by hospitals.Ihave worked in a 900 bed hospital for 14 years and for the last 4 years the hospital has done only done cardboard recycling. Prior to that , the recycling was very minnimal. Their reasons of not recycling include: the cost, storage, man power,but mostly the expense. It is far more cost effective for a large institution to send everything to the landfill. This includes glass, paper, aluminum, and metals, plastics, and all other recyclables including food products.

I know that myself and my family in the private sector do far more recycling at home with our own garbage than the hospital that I work for.

I also feel that in this day and age of dwindleing resources that recycling needs to be mandated by laws rather than only being optional or a good idea especially for large institutions, no matter if it entails a cost or not.

Kent of MN @ Jul 18, 2008 11:54:28 AM