Illustration: JKMM Architects
In 2020, the new Nova hospital will be completed in Kukkumäki, Jyväskylä. The hospital will minimise the amount of waste through modern waste management systems and rational use of resources.
Optimising resources prevents the creation of waste
The new Nova hospital will have a pipeline-based waste collection system with centralised waste collection points sized according to the usage. The amounts of medicines have also been optimised in order to avoid wastage. The hospital also carried out a confidential waste processing pilot in which confidential papers were shredded and recycled instead of collecting them in confidential waste containers.
The hospital environment produces many kinds of waste fractions which are considered hazardous waste. At the moment, the glass waste from pharmaceutical services, for example, is sorted as hazardous waste. The processing of medical glass waste in the new hospital is currently being considered. Several alternatives are being examined, including utilising various kinds of suction devices in cleaning the glass containers.
‘When complete, the Nova hospital will have approximately 110,000 m2. In the future, all of the operations of the Central Finland Central Hospital will be moved to Nova, and in this connection, we will develop and renew our waste management concept’, says project coordinator Kia Paasivirta from the Central Finland Health Care District.
Substantial potential lies in plastic recycling
The amounts and composition of waste in the current hospital were examined as the basis for planning the waste management for the new hospital. The total amount of waste at the Central Finland Central Hospital in 2018 was approximately 1,150 tonnes. The largest waste fraction is mixed waste, which covered 45% of the total amount of waste. The amount of plastic in mixed waste was the highest, and significant potential lies in its separate collection. A survey of the hospital employees also showed that people are willing to sort plastic.
The Central Finland Health Care District also recently published its first environmental programme and strategy which are now carried out and developed further. Good practices are compiled from the waste management of the hospitals and spread further as the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) publishes a waste management guide to hospitals in spring 2019.
More Information