Hospital waste by the ton and how to reduce it

In the operating theatre and one surgical unit of just one hospital in the Quebec City region, over 100 tonnes of waste are thrown away every year, including almost two tonnes of material that is not even used!

Conducted by Marc Journeault's research team from Laval University's Faculty of Administrative Sciences, this study

"...calculated that these two units consume around 137,600 kg of materials per year.

• Plastics represent the main input category with 52,000 kg, or 38% of the total weight.

• Liquids (solutes, jellies, etc.) come second, totalling 42,000 kg (30% of total weight),

• followed by cardboard (22,000 kg; 15% of total weight)

• and paper (14,000 kg; 10% of total weight).

"We have estimated the material footprint at 14 kg per surgical procedure in the operating theatre and 4 kg per patient per day in the surgical unit, for a total of around 35 kg per patient over the entire surgery-hospitalization pathway."

"Items discarded without having been used total around 2,000 kg per year, representing an estimated loss of $225,000."

Multiply this data by the number of departments and the number of hospitals nationwide, and the figures begin to give an idea of the potential for improvement. For example, we already know that over 5,000 tonnes of single-use gloves are consumed in Quebec hospitals alone. Jackets, masks, paper and many other single-use accessories are used massively by hospitals, and we can't count on vendors to close the loop.

The current hospital logic makes it more "profitable" to throw away than to take the time to sort and treat to meet the high standards of hospital hygiene.

The report proposes a number of possible actions, both technical and organizational, to reduce both the quantities thrown away and the environmental footprint of hospital activities, especially since any reduction in pollution and waste has a positive influence on overall health.

For the full article: From the operating room to the garbage can: what an analysis of hospital waste reveals

For the study (.pdf) - Analyse de flux de matières en milieu hospitalier - 178 pages
Journeault, M., Yiougo, L., Perron, A., Marino, A., Lahmar, M., Hellali, W., Schaal, S. 2025.

Visit ulaval.ca