North Tees and Hartlepool Trust introduce eco-friendly measures

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust is introducing ways to become eco-friendly.

The NHS has been shown to represent three per cent of total UK carbon emissions with an annual energy bill of over ￡500m and a carbon footprint of over 18 million tonnes a year.

One of the biggest impacts on the environment is disposing of waste and last year, the trust introduced recycling bins for paper and magazines, tins and plastic bottles and are now looking at what else can be recycled.

The trust has recently started using recycled paper hand towels and is looking into using recycled paper for printers and replacing a lot of printers themselves with multifunctional devices connected to the trusts IT network which can be accessed by several computer terminals.

A travel plan co-ordinator has also been appointed to help bring in the recently produced travel plan which aims to reduce the amount of cross site travel and look at reducing the trust’s fleet carbon footprint.

The trust has also signed up to the Carbon Trust Management Programme run by the Carbon Trust, who provide specialist support to help business and the public sector cut carbon emissions and save energy.

The NHS trust has achieved the bronze award for environmental achievements from the Tees Valley Green Business Group and is now working towards the silver award.

The trust’s environment, health and safety manager John Bushnall said: "We will shortly be installing bins for recycling batteries, of which we use about 50,000 per year and are also looking at recycling the 650,000 aluminium food containers we use annually and will shortly be trialling the recycling of metal, one use theatre instruments."

Further information:
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust