Our hospitals are getting greener, and composting is helping

As a progressive healthcare organization, Yale New Haven Health is committed to environmental stewardship and reducing its carbon footprint. One way is through the composting of food waste generated in our cafeterias.

“Food waste is actually a large contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, specifically when landfilled,” said Dean Caruso, YNHH vice president of Support Services and Sustainability. “By composting we reduce our carbon footprint by converting thousands of pounds of food waste into a form that can be reused.”

YNHHS contracts with composting companies across the system, removing food from the general waste stream. Food waste is taken to facilities where controlled aerobic decomposition processes turn it into compost, a nutrient-rich, soil conditioner used in planting, which could potentially reduce the use of chemical fertilizers. In theory, food scraps from today could help grow the vegetables of tomorrow.

Is all the effort worth it? Absolutely, Caruso explained.

“In the life of our program, we’ve diverted around 318,000 pounds of food waste from landfills and sent it for composting, which reduced the equivalent of more than 53,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted to the environment. That’s the equivalent of 2,700 gallons of gas burned or 1.6 million smart phones charged. It would also be equivalent to driving an average car approximately 62,000 miles.”

Composting programs are ongoing at Greenwich, L+M and Yale New Haven hospitals (both York Street and Saint Raphael campuses). Bridgeport Hospital has a food donation program that helps reduce food waste, and all YNHHS hospitals are engaged in a “WasteWatch Leanpath” program, which helps reduce food loss before it becomes waste.

Sodexo, the health system’s food services management vendor, introduced the Leanpath training program to help staff reduce waste, said Sodexo's Nicole Guillory, director for Food and Nutrition. The program is being implemented systemwide to train frontline staff who perform tasks like cutting meat to use scraps for soup stock instead of discarding them. The same thing can be done with pieces of tomato or peppers.

Food waste management is only one part of a much bigger sustainability mission across YNHHS. For example, the Center for Sustainable Healthcare (C4SH) is setting a course to reduce our hospitals’ carbon footprints through multiple initiatives.

As one example, efforts are underway to evaluate whether certain types of medical supplies, such as blood pressure cuffs and pulse oximetry probes, can be safely replaced with reusable implements. Another example is the use of medical dose inhalers, which emit gases that are detrimental to the environment; if some of those inpatient inhaler doses could be replaced with other breathing treatments, lower amounts of gases would be emitted. The use and storage of anesthetic gases such as nitrous oxide are also under review.

Healthcare operations worldwide place a heavy burden on the environment and human health, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions minimizes the adverse impacts. Anyone with ideas about helping YNHHS reduce its environmental impact can contact their delivery network’s Green Team. On the employee intranet, click on “S” under Departments & Communities and choose Sustainable Healthcare.

“Integrating sustainability into our operations allows us to do the right thing,” Caruso said. “Our sustainability objectives align with the healthcare sector’s duty of care and purpose to ‘do no harm,’ and we’re trying to protect communities and the environment for current and future generations.”