Diverting 1,000 pounds of food waste every week and counting
Penn Medicine Princeton Health’s new food waste collection initiative keeps food waste out of landfills.
In the restaurant at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center, staff members and visitors end their meal by placing trays stacked with plates, utensils, uneaten food, drink bottles, and more onto a conveyor belt that slowly carries them out of sight.
It’s no disappearing trick, but there is still a lot more going on than meets the eye. Where trays emerge on the other side of the wall, two kitchen staff members are waiting to sort the waste into three color-coded bins: gray for landfill-bound items, blue for recyclables, and green for food remnants. One floor below, in the hospital’s main kitchen, is a similar worksite set up to sort waste from the food prep area and trays that are brought back from patient rooms.
This is all part of a new food waste collection initiative at the hospital which began this spring. The waste is trucked to a nearby farm that uses it as feed for livestock or grinds it into mulch.
A ton and a half of food waste in three weeks
Princeton Medical Center collected 1.5 tons of food waste in the first three weeks of the program, said Greg Evans, Penn Medicine’s corporate director of sustainability. At that rate, the hospital would collect 26 tons over a full year. That amounts to 52,000 pounds of food waste—a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions diverted from the landfill by a single hospital. Evans said he hopes to introduce food waste collection at other Penn Medicine locations as well.
A hospital ahead of the curve on health care sustainability
Food waste collection is one of the newest sustainability efforts at Penn Medicine Princeton Health, which was recently recognized by Practice Greenhealth, a nonprofit membership organization promoting environmental stewardship and best practices in the health care. In May, Princeton Health received Practice Greenhealth’s Partner for Change Award for the second year in a row. Evans said the award—presented to just 216 health care organizations nationwide—reflects Princeton Health’s progress related to ongoing sustainability initiatives.
For instance, in 2022, Princeton Health more than doubled its collection and reprocessing of single-use medical devices, such as pulse oximeters, leads and cables, and various surgical supplies. Princeton Medical Center and its ambulatory surgery centers continued to ban the use of the anesthetic desflurane, a particularly harmful greenhouse gas.
Princeton Health also completed an energy audit of the hospital campus that sparked initiatives to dramatically decrease carbon emissions. The initiatives are expected to kick off later this summer, Evans said.
The nation's most environmentally friendly health system
Penn Medicine is reducing waste and working to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2042. The goal is to become the most sustainable health care organization in the United States.
Another ongoing initiative is the introduction of SAO—or stabilized aqueous ozone—cleaning technology, which adds oxygen to tap water to create a solution that is an effective cleanser and sanitizer yet contains no harmful chemicals. Larry Garcia, director, Environmental Services, said the department is using the SAO solution in the atrium and other public areas of PMC while seeking Infection Control Committee approval to use it throughout the hospital. Evans said the goal is to increase the use of SAO at all Princeton Health locations before expanding to other entities across Penn Medicine.
One initiative that has already extended across other Penn Medicine entities is the measurement of carbon emissions to calculate a total for the entire University of Pennsylvania Health System. The figure will be tracked over time as Penn Medicine develops a multiyear strategy to reduce emissions and meet system-wide sustainability goals.