Register today for the
H2E Awards Ceremony and Workshops at
 LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
Logos, anti-junk mail campaigns, and other creative recycling ideas
Does your facility have a recycling logo? Consider designing one that incorporates a recycling message with your facility's logo. Let both your staff and community know that you are proudly recycling – provide feel-good statistics about waste and cost savings, and lots of encouragement. To remind folks why participating in your recycling program is important, set goals, measure and report on progress, and celebrate your successes. A great recycling program is your public face to your broader environmental program – an education and "marketing" campaign is well worth the effort!
If you are not recycling paper and cardboard, start there. But there are so many opportunities to be creative – start a junk mail reduction campaign by not only ensuring folks recycle junk mail, but better yet, encourage everyone to register to stop getting it in the first place. Call computer services if you receive reports you do not need. And finally, take the time to understand recycling markets in your area. If you are paying for cardboard recycling and markets are strong in your area – you should be making money!
– Laura Brannen, Director, H2E
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Recycling Success Story
One Texas facility is recycling everything but the kitchen sink – reducing thousands of pounds of waste!
 Recycling, as stated by our representatives of the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ), is the best way to turn a waste into a product. That alone is the best reason for healthcare facilities to find ways to recycle. Our Environmental Services Department has given special emphasis to recycling, and we are now recycling:
• Corrugated paper/cardboard
• Cell phones
• Confidential paper
• Ink jet/Toner cartridges
• Computers/electronics
• Telephone Directories
We are also looking into the massive amounts of coffee grounds we produce for use in Facilities Maintenance Grounds Department for fertilizing shrubs and trees. Additionally, BFI (now Allied Waste Systems) is working up a program for periodicals, especially “slick” paper from magazines. These two items are in the “research” stage for us.
Our ink jet/toner program got off to a brilliant start by all of the posters and in-house “marketing” we did to make everyone aware that it took ½ cup of crude oil to make one single ink cartridge. Interesting factoids increase awareness and amplify the real need for recycling.
The good news is that we have formed a closed loop in our recycling of confidential paper (CP). We have partnered with a local company that furnishes locked containers (all with bar-code tracking) for our CP. They pick up the full containers each week and take them to their location where the shredding occurs. The shredded paper is then “baled” and palletized. They have made an agreement with a company in Oklahoma that de-inks the paper, and that company then sends the product to Georgia-Pacific Paper Company. GP then processes the pulp and makes recycled paper products such as towels, tissue and facial tissue. GP sends the products to the local paper distributor, Miller Paper Company, and they deliver the products for use at BSA.
Our income on our recycling projects only amounts to a few hundred dollars each month, but we are taking thousands of pounds – and hazardous products – out of our Solid Waste Stream. Our employees like being part of the process. In fact, some of the cell phones we have collected for recycling are in very good working order. We donate those cell phones to the Women's Domestic Violence Shelter to fill a critical need for our community. The remainder of the cell phones are sent to a recycler.
Our biggest challenge is that we are 300 miles away from the closest recycler. With the help of H2E, we are investigating other methods of recycling, such as mail-in programs for bulbs. Our Environmental Services Department has led the way to make a viable recycling program and many of our BSA Departments support the program and the processes to make it work. We applied for our first H2E Award this year!
SUCCESS STORY QUICK STATS
HOSPITAL: Baptist St. Anthony's Health Care System, Amarillo, TX
WEBSITE: www.bsahs.org
CONTACT: Mark Presser, Director of Environmental Services, 806/212-2205, mark.presser@bsahs.org
H2E Partner Since: November 2004
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“Just Say No” to Junk Mail
 Go to this website to find out how to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive. It's a great way to reduce waste at the source.
Encourage every department to participate!
www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/optoutalrt.htm back to top
March Teleconferences
 This month H2E is hosting three free teleconferences for H2E Partners and Champions:
• March 3rd: Energy Conservation Strategies (part of the new Green Guide for Health Care Series)
• March 10th: Recycling 101 – Learn the basics on training, implementation and tracking
• March 17th: Intro to H2E and Data Collection
For more information and to register, see www.h2e-online.org.
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Maryland is Making Progress!
 With assistance from a proactive nursing professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, the Maryland H2E (MD H2E) program applied for foundation funding to support hospitals across the state in implementing environmental programs. As a result, MD H2E was able to hire a full-time Program Director and a half-time Technical Director for a two-year period to work with hospitals in Maryland.
In collaboration with the Maryland Hospital Association, the Maryland Nurses Association, the Maryland Department of the Environment, and Health Care Without Harm, the MD H2E program has set up hospital focus groups on different waste management and pollution prevention issues. The focus groups meet monthly to develop policies and strategies and identify opportunities, and then report back to the newly formed Maryland Environmental Protection Committee on a quarterly basis. MD H2E's recruiting efforts are also paying off, with 8 major hospitals, representing more than 2300 beds, signing on as Partners in the past 2 months.
For more information on the MD H2E program, contact Richard Zdanis at 410-706-2352 or rzdan001@son.umaryland.edu. For information on how to develop an H2E program in your state, contact Cecilia DeLoach, H2E's State Partnership Program Director at 800-727-4179 or cecilia.deloach@h2e-online.org.
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Did You Know?
 • Americans discard 4 million tons of office paper every year. That's enough to build a 12 foot-high wall of paper from New York to California.
• Recycling aluminum results in 95% less air pollution and 97% less water pollution than producing aluminum from natural resources.
• Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves the equivalent in energy of 2,350 gallons of gasoline. This is equivalent to the amount of electricity used by the typical home over a period of 10 years.
• A ton of glass produced from raw materials creates 384 pounds of mining waste. Using 50% recycled glass cuts that waste by about 75%.
• We dump most of the magazines printed in the U.S. each year (about 8 million tons) into landfills. If we recycled just half of them, we could save over 12 million cubic yards of landfill space.
Learn how to boost recycling in your facility – and improve our health and our environment – at www.h2e-online.org.
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