A comparison of waste compositions at health and social care facilities

<jats:p> Sustainability is an issue for both healthcare and social care organisations. Understanding the similarities and differences between healthcare and social care waste compositions, especially the amounts of potentially recyclable waste, can help target waste reduction strategies more effectively. A waste audit was undertaken at four health and social care sites in the South West of England. A comparison was made between the waste compositions of healthcare clinical and domestic waste streams and those of social care sites. Over a three-month period, 115 bags of waste (69 clinical and 46 domestic waste bags) were weighed and the contents catalogued. </jats:p><jats:p> A greater number of items and unique item types were found on average at the healthcare site in comparison to the social care sites. The domestic waste streams at all four sites contained high proportions of potentially recyclable wastes. The clinical waste stream of the healthcare site also contained the highest proportion of potentially recyclable waste (66%). The differences in the amounts of potentially recyclable waste between the four study sites demonstrate the importance of understanding the composition of the different waste streams to inform the design of effective and impactful interventions. </jats:p>