DELIVERING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY A TOOLKIT FOR POLICYMAKERS

DELIVERING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY – A TOOLKIT FOR POLICYMAKERS • 145
tightly controlled systems such as airports, it is reasonable to envision hospitals as
champions in both waste prevention and recycling.
THE OPPORTUNITY FOR DENMARK
The largest source of (non-hazardous) waste in hospitals is the purchasing and
preparation of food and beverage. As explained by one sector expert, it is common for
departments to order too many meals from the kitchen to add a safety margin, which
risks being magnified by the kitchen’s safety margins. As a result hospital kitchens may
end up purchasing more food and ingredients than needed, which ultimately produces
avoidable food waste.
The approach to prevent avoidable food waste for large institutions such as hospitals
differs from the alternatives laid out for the consumer-facing market (Section 3.2.2)
in that it is more centred on right-sizing procured volumes. One way of incentivising
this planning challenge is to set standards on sustainable procurement of the food and
catering services, such as introduced by the NHS in the UK. 284
Given its scale, hospitals could systemise and improve recycling beyond the already
ambitious targets of the Danish society set by the ‘Denmark Without Waste’ strategy.
Hospitals are part of the service sector where the target for recycling packaging waste
in 2018 is 70% (paper, glass, metal and plastic) and 60% for recycling of organic waste
in 2018. 285 In comparison, Danish hospitals today note recycling rates of 15–30%, with an
average below 20%. 286
Danish hospitals therefore have an opportunity to make a systematic effort with strong
management commitment to improve recycling, while at the same time reducing
waste generation. While this effort needs to be driven primarily by a well-informed and
committed staff, it could be guided by, for example, working with waste management
suppliers that increasingly provide waste minimisation services apart from operating the
logistics and treatment. While the potential has not been fully quantified in this case, it
should be feasible to achieve overall recycling rates above of approximately 85% (70%)
by 2035 (2020). This corresponds to being aligned with the ‘Denmark Without Waste’
target by 2020 and then gradually outpacing it.
BARRIERS AND POTENTIAL POLICY OPTIONS
The following paragraphs provide an initial perspective on the barriers limiting the
‘waste reduction and recycling in hospitals’ opportunity (see Section 2.2.4 for the
barriers framework). Hospitals face similar social factor and information barriers when
aiming to reduce waste generation and increase recycling as when trying to increase
the use of performance models in procurement. There is limited capacity within
hospital administrations to consider waste prevention and waste handling and, while
procurement departments are already highly professional, hospitals lack expertise in
waste prevention and management. Furthermore, hospital targets are centred on quality
of healthcare; expert interviews indicate that there is resistance to the idea of adding
to or diluting such targets with targets relating to waste. Furthermore, there is limited
information on the economic benefits of reducing waste and increasing recycling due
to a lack of analysis of procured and disposed materials in hospitals. As in the food
and packaging sectors, the incentive to reduce waste and increase recycling would
rise if the market prices of packaging, food and other consumables reflected their true
environmental costs.
As before, at the level of individual hospitals, the main short-term challenge is improving
capabilities and skills as well as changing mindsets. Over a longer time horizon,
policymakers might choose to play a role by creating supporting guidelines (non-
284 UK Department of Health, The Hospital Food Standards Panel’s report on standards for food and drink in NHS
hospitals (2014).
285 Danish Government, Denmark Without Waste. Recycle more – incinerate less (2013).
286 Excluding construction and garden waste. Based on interviews and correspondence with representatives
from hospital environmental managers and Danish Regions.