WasteLess - Flipbook - Page 20
Outstanding Green Team
CHRIST HOSPITAL
By | Mary Cropenbaker
R
ealizing that waste can add up - in both garbage and bills - Christ Hospital
rejuvenated it’s Green Team in 2019 after multiple employees expressed
renewed interest in reducing the hospital’s environmental impact. According to
Green Team member, Jake Campbell, revamping the recycling program became
their first priority because “we had so many initial ideas about where we could
focus our energy, but eventually we made the decision to focus exclusively on
one tangible goal in order to build traction.”
We would like
to master out
recycling
program [but
beyond that]
0ne long-term
goal is to
make
sustainability
and waste
reduction a
line item in
our budgets.
Jake Campbell,
Green Team Member
19
In theory, revamping an existing recycling
program might sound simple, but in practice at a
large hospital it is a daunting task – especially
during
a
global
pandemic.
Jake
Campbell
remembers the first challenge the Green Team
faced was budgets. “Everyone wanted to be able
to recycle, but no one could find the room in their
budgets to help us get enough recycling bins to
go around.” Jake and the Green Team were able to
overcome this challenge by partnering with
Hamilton County Recycling and Solid Waste
District (District). The District worked with Green
Team members to pilot recycling in specific
departments and provided free interior recycling
containers to all the main hospital departments
once the pilots proved successful.
A second challenge to recycling was simply the
coordination of the different departments needed
to logistically roll out a program including the
Facilities Department, Environmental Services
Department, and all of the units, labs, and
departments across the hospital campus. The size
and complexity causes multiple opportunities
where recycling efforts in large hospitals can fail.
But, Christ Hospital understands
the secret to
recycling success: communication and