In our ongoing series, Aaron White, head of business services and sustainability at Oakland Care, outlines small but effective changes care homes can implement to promote sustainability, here focusing on reducing waste

Reducing waste is not only a sensible way to benefit the environment but it can also save you money. Recycling is a great step, but ultimately you are still paying for the items to be collected, so anything you can keep and reuse in a different way will reduce the amount of waste being generated.

Engage with your waste management company to find out where your waste is going. Our company gives us access to a portal which shows us the volume and weight of waste that has been collected from each site and its destination. Map out your waste streams and look at each one to find out whether there’s a better option. General waste is one of the most expensive forms of collection, so making changes could even save you some money.

Composting, for example, is a way to reuse kitchen waste and cardboard. At Oakland Care, we have also carried out upcycling activities with residents, where we have used old pallets to make planters or old plastic bottles to make plant feeders. One of our homes has a scheme which is similar to a Bring and Buy, except there’s no buying involved.

Staff bring in items they no longer need, such as clothes, toys and toiletries, and other team members can take what they need. It’s a simple initiative and great for staff wellbeing in these times of high living costs.

At Oakland Care we have reduced the volume of our clinical waste by 50% by investing in a vacuum pack system. A machine reduces waste to small blocks rather than large bags. This also reduces odour, which is beneficial, especially if your bin store is close to a residential area.

As we are charged per bin, by halving the volume of waste, we have halved the cost of collection. Reducing the number of trucks coming to collect waste also reduces their emissions, which further benefits the environment. An investment of this sort is not necessarily a simple, quick fix, but it shows how far you can go if you want to, and within a year we’ve found it has paid for itself.

When it comes to recycling, at an absolute minimum you should be splitting your standard recycling into cardboard, recyclable plastics, glass and food waste. You need to have separate or split recycling bins at each station inside the care home as well as outside. Waste oil should be collected by a reputable waste oil collector as it can be recycled and used for fuel. There are sustainable ways of getting rid of batteries, printer cartridges and toners – we have a community battery recycling box in place at each home, which is a completely free service.

Your waste electrical and electronic equipment must be disposed of through a reputable route, it can’t just go into a bin or skip. Our IT company, for example, is a registered disposer of that kind of waste and even repurposes any parts first.

There are also lots of schemes out there for donating old computer equipment to community projects, or schools in other countries where children need laptops. We donate items like newspapers and old towels and blankets to animal shelters. It’s a great way of repurposing items and avoiding putting them in the general waste bin. The waste in the general bin should be the minority, not the majority.