Over the last six months, a segregated recycling programme has been rolled out across Combined Healthcare which has already demonstrated positive, impactful results just months after its launch.
Since the introduction of its recycling programme, the amount of general waste generated by the trust has been reduced by over four tonnes since January 2025. This has saved over 61.8 tonnes of carbon emissions by diverting waste going to landfill.
The trust’s waste partner, Biffa, shared some facts highlighting recycling statistics for the period January to September 2025 including:
- the amount of card and paper recycled at the trust helped to save 185 trees and 273,225 litres of water.
- 78.4 tonnes of general waste has been diverted from landfill to instead be made into refuse derived fuel, a high-energy-value fuel produced from the non-recyclable, combustible fraction of waste, such as household and commercial waste. This has saved over 44,308kgs of carbon emissions.
- 6.5 tonnes of plastic has been recycled through the scheme which has saved the equivalent of 154,762 two-litre bottles (or 541,667 carrier bags) from being produced.
Biffa has also produced a fact sheet to show some of these tangible results in more detail. View it here.
These results are a tangible demonstration of the hard work of our trust teams and colleagues to recycling across all of our sites. This is also credit to our colleagues in our Facilities team, who worked in close partnership with our teams and colleagues at Serco to ensure the success of the roll out.
Liz Mellor, Chief Strategy Officer, said
“The successful launch of our recycling programme marks an important milestone in our sustainability journey and demonstrates how small, everyday actions can make a big impact. This is just one of the initiatives we have launched to reduce emissions and embed sustainability at the heart of everything we do.
“I’m very proud of how our teams have embraced this effort and I look forward to building on this momentum as we continue to work towards the targets set in our Green Plan 2025-2028.”
