Countess of Chester Hospital Dialysis Unit has tried to reduce the amount of paper used through a 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle' Programme.

Results of Local Changes

• Since paper copies of blood results have been stopped from Pathology it has been calculated we will save a minimum of 3344 sheets of paper per annum (projected).
• All printers within the unit have been defaulted to print double sided by our IT team.
• Patient paper care plans have been reduced from 14 pages to 6, a reduction of 51%.
• Staff and patient education and encouragement to recycle successfully measured by the recycling pick up needing to increase from once every 2 weeks to twice per week.
• Overall paper consumption reduced from approximately 10,000 sheets to 2,500 sheets every 8 weeks, a reduction of 75%. With forecasted financial benefits of paper costs from £187.20 to £47.84 per annum giving a saving of £139.36.

Carbon savings (section updated November 2012)

£139.36 x 0.78 kg CO2e * / £ = 109 kg CO2e

* emissions factor for supply of paper products, 2012 Guidelines to DEFRA/DECC Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors for Company Reporting, Annex 13

How To Guide:

Reduce

• Stop all paper copies of blood results as located within the IT system.
• Double side all printed documents.
• Reduce paper care plan to essential information only.

Reuse

• Implement a scrap paper A5 file to be used , for example telephone call messages, to do lists food orders.
• Any non confidential paper waste to be used for scrap paper.

Recycle

• Ensure recycling bins are located within the renal unit.
• Patient education to encourage recycling of newspapers read on the unit.
• Ensure all paper waste is deposited in the recycle bins provided within the unit.