Wasting Syndrome

How much trash do hospitals produce?

o ballpark a more recent figure, the Lantern turned to Practice Greenhealth , a network for eco-friendly health care institutions. In a 2010 survey, 114 of the group's member hospitals reported generating an average of 33.8 pounds of waste per day, per staffed bed . According to the American Hospital Association, there are 951,045 staffed hospital beds in the country. That works out to about 5.9 million tons of garbage annually—perhaps even more, considering that the hospitals surveyed already recycle or otherwise divert at least 10 percent of their waste. (By comparison, Americans produced 250 million tons of municipal solid waste —what we typically call "garbage"—in 2008.)

ref: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_scie...drome.html

............so.......let's look at it deeper...........

Power plays

Combined heat and power systems save money, reduce energy dependence, but regulations can unplug hospitals' plans


...According to the Advanced Power & Energy Program at the University of California, Irvine, a typical hospital's energy needs range up to 5 MW. For reference, 1,000 kW is equivalent to one MW, which is the amount of power needed for roughly 16,600 60-watt light bulbs.

“In a lot of cases, combined heat and power or cogeneration is a no-brainer for healthcare institutions,” says Paul Schwabacher, senior vice president of facilities management at NYU Langone. Yet, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, only 202 hospitals in the U.S. operate with the combined systems.So why isn't everybody doing it?“There are substantial challenges,” says Rick Sites, senior director of health policy at the Ohio Hospital Association. These include limited capital for investments, regulatory barriers involving utility companies and physical space requirements. But hospitals, government agencies and advocates for energy efficiency are working to find ways to make combined heat and power more available and affordable.