Insight

s ce Re Numbers Waste in THE AVERAGE PERSON IN THE UNITED STATES PRODUCES 4.39 POUNDS OF TRASH PER DAY—THAT’S UP TO 56 TONS OF TRASH PER YEAR GENERATED BY ONE HUMAN BEING. The U.S. healthcare industry produces more than 2 million tons of waste per year. 1 recycled aluminum can saves enough energy to power a TV set for up to 3 hours or light up one 100-watt bulb for 20 hours. Health care is the second largest consumer of energy in America. The U.S. wastes nearly 90 percent of recyclable newspapers every Sunday— that translates to approximately 500,000 trees. It has been estimated that healthcare facilities in the U.S. produce more than 6,600 tons of waste per day. INSIDE THE NUMBERS insight What’s your organization doing to help reduce the cost—both fi nancially and environmentally—of waste? The amount of aluminum cans that Americans throw away could rebuild the U.S. air fl eet every three months, and waste enough iron and steel to supply all our nation’s automakers every day. Approximately 2.5 million plastic bottles are thrown in the trash every hour in the United States. It’s estimated that the healthcare sector spends $6.5 billion on energy each year. The annual estimated healthcare cost of solid waste disposal in the United States is about $15 billion annually. In 2002, it was estimated that hospitals ranging in size from 133 to 510 beds use anywhere from 68,750 to 298,013 gallons of water per year per bed. Of all solid hospital wastes, it is projected that 53 percent is paper, 17 percent is food or organic, 15 percent is plastic, 3 percent is metal, and packaging accounts for nearly 43 percent of all hospital trash. By Angelina Cebrián Interested in learning about how your organization can become greener? Contact our GreenCare Awards sponsor at www.sustainability consulting.com. 27 insight : ght: s sharpening your healthcare marketing vision harpening your healthcare marketing vision c l Pe a y e l R g e i m l o y v c e I n s r e o r f t e s B e R e c n

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