Empty medical supply boxes, white cube coolers and the odd exam glove, yep it must be Tuesday.
Keep Alliance Beautiful hooks up to Box Butte General Hospital’s recycling trailer every week, almost always early on Tuesday mornings. Sometimes, by the time I arrive at 10 a.m., our day shift has already returned the trailer and processed its contents. Most weeks, I have my choice of two or three black BBGH containers to sort.
The hospital may not be our top recycler by weight or volume though I cannot tell you for sure. I can share that the county-owned medical facility and KAB cooperate to log the amount recycled. BBGH sent 10,729 pounds of recyclables through our doors in 2021 based on weights recorded during weekly pickups. The figures do not account for occasions (like this past Thursday) when hospital staff came by with a loaded pickup, or when we respond to a request to visit their campus for a pick up. Through August this year, the total was 7,605 pounds – ahead of the 2021 pace when measured by percentage: 66 (524 pounds) and time: eight months (905 pounds). The volumes represent a dozen categories. Cardboard has weighed in by the ton within several months during both years. Everything else, except glass and aluminum cans, tipped the scales above 200 pounds by the end of 2021.
Numbers are fun to parse sometimes yet figures can make poor storytellers. Jim Bargen, BBGH chief operations officer and KAB board member, expounded on the recent history of recycling and other environmentally-responsible practices at Box Butte General.
Jim, who has been at BBGH for five years, explained that their recycling practices began before his time, “probably 10 years (prior) or longer.” He added, “(When I got here, we) did a decent job: a few bins here and there, everybody knew where the trailer was.”
I have peered back into my memories as a patient on a couple occasions, visitor on others, around four or five years ago. Yes, there was access when I wanted to avoid pitching a bottle or can in the trash. Nothing that I had not come to expect. Then, months after I started this job, KAB and BBGH began collaborating more. Jim talked about the timeline. “One and a half years ago, we started the sustainability committee and knew we could improve on all those fronts,” he said. “(We) knew who was passionate about recycling.”
Ten to 12 staff members formed the committee. Teams of two to three did waste audits in each department: what type of actions made each specific type? Environmental Services (EVS) saw how they were removing waste from each area, Jim said, as the committee asked staff about barriers to removing waste. He explained that they brought findings back to the committee then distributed 75 bins throughout the facility, “especially where we had a lot of waste,” such as purchasing and surgery.
Reducing waste and recycling have proved a great fit. The other R is not the best option, Jim said. “In hospitals you can’t reuse things.” He reflected that the process was exciting and “it seems recycling has gone up since.”
Writer’s Note: This is the first in a series on recycling and environmental topics at BBGH.