Western District Health Service achieves a perfect score in Waste Management
4 January 2008
Western District Health Service has achieved a perfect score in the 2007 South Western and Grampians Regional Waste Management Groups benchmarking survey.
Not only was WDHS the only healthcare organisation in the survey to achieve the perfect score of 101, it was well above the other 12 organisations which participated in the survey located in the Central Murray, Grampians, Highlands and South Western Region.
The inaugural benchmarking survey took place in 2005, with six hospitals in the South Western and Grampians Regions participating, to assess and benchmark their waste management performance against criteria set by the Australian Council for Healthcare Standards and Sustainability Victoria’s Waste Wise Program.
Following the 2005 survey a number of key issues were identified relating to the design of the survey, administration and reporting. The 2006 benchmarking survey was expanded to provide a more comprehensive assessment of a hospital’s participation in waste management, and attracted participation from 18 organisations.
In 2007 the survey was again refined to enable organisations to continue inclusion, adapting it to allow healthcare organisations to complete the surveys themselves.
The 2007 survey involved 13 health organisations throughout Victoria, ranging from large hospitals with 1,300 employees to those with 130 staff.
WDHS director of Hotel Services, Mr Peter Davies credits the Health Services’ continued success with waste management to the efforts of hospital staff members.
“WDHS received an outstanding result, with our waste management practices ensuring we achieved a perfect score. This ongoing success is attributed to the efforts put in to the program by Mr Norm Saligari, the WDHS Hotel Services Co-Ordinator and his team,” Mr Davies said.
Some of WDHS’s waste management systems include bins for the collection of plastic, glass and steel containers as well as a trailer for the collection of cardboard for recycling. Office paper is also collected for recycling.
With this infrastructure in place the hospital is able to divert approximately 270m3 of material from landfill annually. This commitment to waste management is for the benefit for the community and our environment.
Mr Davies also credits WDHS success with its joining the Sustainability Victoria’s Waste Wise Program.
“The commitment by WDHS back in 2003 to join the Waste-Wise Program and its subsequent accreditation through to 2007, set in place the framework from which WDHS could build a best practice ‘waste management’ program for other organisations to follow,” he said.
ABOVE: Western District Health Service has achieved a perfect score in the 2007 South Western and Grampians Regional Waste Management Groups benchmarking survey. WDHS Director of Corporate Services Patrick Turnbull, WDHS Hotel Services Coordinator Norm Saligari and WDHS Hotel Services Manager Peter Davies are congratulated by Waste Wise Group Regional Education Officer Cydoni Younie and Waste Wise Executive Officer Neil Povey.