Health systems are thinking bigger about how to apply their commitment to “first, do no harm” to reducing any negative impact their operation may have on population health. For many hospitals and healthcare facilities, this has translated to a stronger focus on reducing the greenhouse gasses (GHG) they emit and their contribution to global climate change. The healthcare sector reportedly produces as much as 4.6% GHG emissions worldwide.
While much of these GHG emissions are the result of energy production, there is another cause at play here as well. Practice Greenhealth, an organization supporting sustainability efforts in health care, estimates that 10% to 15% of the solid waste that hospitals generate comes from food waste. That waste creates GHG emissions from upstream agricultural activities all the way through landfill disposal.
Now, as more hospitals are taking a closer look at how their food offerings and disposal methods impact their patients, they are finding alternative disposal methods that can help them reduce their overall GHG emissions, their spending, and their impact on population health.
Improving food’s impact on patient and community health
Many health systems are beginning to evaluate their food offerings. However, in many cases the driver here is understanding how the food being served impacts patient health. As a handful of studies have pointed to the negative impact of hospitals’ unhealthy food options, health systems have begun to reinvent their approach to patient food.
A 2019 study found that 30% to 50% of patients who enter the hospital malnourished experience a decline in nutrition during their stay. This puts those patients at higher risk of adverse outcomes once they are discharged, the study concluded. This and related research has pushed health systems to consider the health impact of the food they provide. Hospitals are increasingly making fresh food to order, providing more fruit and vegetable options, and bringing in executive chefs to create healthy and appealing menus for patients.
As part of this rethinking of food’s impact on health, hospitals also have an opportunity to right-size food production and rethink food waste disposal. The key to both efforts begins with understanding the size and scope of the problem.
The scale of hospitals’ food waste problem
By Practice Greenhealth’s calculations, hospitals generate more than 30 pounds of waste per bed each day. That amounts to approximately 288,000 tons of food waste from hospitals each year, the organization estimates. When organic waste goes to the garbage, it leads to emissions being generated during transport to the landfill.
However, it’s at the landfill where the damage is truly done. When organic waste is left to decompose in a sealed landfill environment, it emits methane gas. This greenhouse gas has a global warming potential approximately 84 to 87 times greater than CO2.
Hospital food waste is primarily driven by high levels of overproduction as per design.
According to Food and Nutrition Services for Long Term Care Facilities, each care facility must provide each resident with a nourishing, palatable, well-balanced diet that meets his or her daily nutritional and special dietary needs, taking into consideration the preferences of each resident.
To meet this requirement, the facility must offer rotating menus with multiple options based on the resident’s preference. This intentional overproduction of meal options leads to waste. While many foodservice sectors expect overproduction to account for 50% of food waste generated, this number jumps to 65% in healthcare food production.
For cash-strapped hospitals, this excess is particularly troublesome since it means facilities find themselves throwing money away.
By rightsizing production – and ensuring they’re delivering healthy meals that patients want and when they want them – hospitals can significantly reduce their upfront spending on food.
Food waste reduction also reduces downstream costs. Practice Greenhealth estimates that hospitals spend an average of $0.06 to $0.10 per pound for waste removal.
For a typical 200-bed community hospital, this puts the annual cost of food waste disposal at $7,800. Reducing food waste can significantly lower this cost, as well as the many indirect costs associated with food waste disposal.
Hospital food waste disposal alternatives
Runnymede Healthcare Center in Toronto has found data to be key to being essential in driving purchasing adjustments. The 206-bed continuing care and rehabilitation hospital serves approximately 600 meals each day and generates about 60 kg (130 lb) of food waste each day. That amounts to about two tons of food waste each month.
The facility was disposing of those food scraps through the kitchen sink garburator and in garbage bins sent to the landfill. However, a growing focus on mitigating the facility’s environmental impact led Runnymede to install an LFC biodigester to handle food waste in September 2016. The machine has been in use continually since then.
Unlike a landfill, a biodigester allows food waste to decompose in an oxygen-rich environment. This simple switch eliminates the damaging production of methane byproducts that occurs during oxygen-free decomposition. The sealed biodigester is installed directly into the food production area. This reduces the amount of garbage that must be transported to the landfill and the emissions generated during this process. Perhaps more impactful yet, the machine gathers data about its performance that kitchen staff can access via the cloud.
Unlike a landfill, a biodigester allows food waste to decompose in an oxygen-rich environment. This simple switch eliminates the damaging production of methane byproducts that occurs during oxygen-free decomposition. The sealed biodigester is installed directly into the food production area. This reduces the amount of garbage that must be transported to the landfill and the emissions generated during this process. Perhaps more impactful yet, the machine gathers data about its performance that kitchen staff can access via the cloud.
“The machine’s online reporting capability was a selling point for us,” explains Bruce Westwater, director of information services at Runnymede. “If, for example, the LFC-100 records a dramatic spike or decline in the amount of food waste digested over a period of days, the kitchen staff can investigate immediately to see if a particular menu item or change in disposal procedures might be responsible.”
With better insight into which foods might see higher rates of disposal, food production staff can adjust purchasing to better align with patient needs and tastes. In the process, Runnymede has also cut food waste hauling costs in half.
Hospital food waste’s role in sustainability initiatives
As hospitals expand their work to reduce their environmental impact, food waste must be part of the conversation. Fortunately, solutions like the LFC biodigester make it easier to make food waste mitigation work part of bigger sustainability initiatives. For example, biodigesters emit gray water as a byproduct. While this water can be disposed of down the drain, it can also be used to sustain the green roofs and landscaping being incorporated in more healthcare facilities.
To learn more about how LFC biodigesters can reduce hospitals’ environmental impact, without an added impact on staff, explore Power Knot’s healthcare resources or contact us with questions.