Create positive awareness: Separating waste in veterinary practices

Separating plastic waste rewards! We knew that already and now Veterinary Practice Europaplein in Amsterdam knows it as well! The practice hasn’t only become more sustainable, they also have had an amazing decrease in their costs. Wouldn’t every veterinary practice want this?

A good idea

Nowadays more and more people are separating plastic waste, whether it is at home, at school and even in public places. So why does it seem so hard for small businesses to separate their waste? Especially when small businesses could make a profit out of it.

We came up with a program to create awareness, to improve the process of separating waste and to reduce the use of plastic.

How did we make it happen

After we got in contact with Veterinary Practice Europaplein we invited the stakeholders of the waste process and involved them to define objectives and responsibilities to improve the sustainable footprint of the practice.

These companies helped

Renewi, the waste collector advised to separate special kinds of plastic and adapted the waste collecting process.

Mark Verhage: “At Renewi we are always looking for opportunities to find as many renewable raw materials out of waste”

Thuisrecycling.nl advised using different bins for an optimum waste system in the veterinary practice.

Plastic waste

A veterinary practice produces tons of waste each year. Think about gloves, different foils, carton or any plastic object. Their waste needed to be separated in a plastic waste stream as well as more pure waste streams.

The process

Presentation for staff:

  • To create awareness for the plastic problem and solution
  • To involve them
  • To learn from them, opportunities and blockers

Staff determined:

  • Which bins they preferred in the different rooms
  • The number of waste streams

Assessment of the current situation:

  • The number and content of bins, inside and outside
  • How often the waste container was collected
  • The costs of waste collection

The reward

Veterinary Practice Europaplein is more sustainable. Due to the awareness in the veterinary about recycling and plastic waste, more waste will be separated. The results are as good as we could hope for. The veterinary has a decrease of 29% in residual waste, which results in fewer waste empties, from twice a week to once every two weeks. With fewer empties, the costs for residual waste will have a considerable decrease of 50% in year one.

Based on the current separation results, the expectation for 2019 is a decrease of the residual waste by 31% and the achieved environmental saving 53% of raw materials.

Create awareness

The staff has completely abandoned/let go of their resistance to separate waste and has become aware of the value of waste, in other words, they have become ambassadors of sustainability.

Next case

Create positive awareness: Separating waste in veterinary practices

Separating plastic waste rewards! We knew that already and now Veterinary Practice Europaplein in Amsterdam knows it as well! The practice hasn’t only become more sustainable, they also have had an amazing decrease in their costs. Wouldn’t every veterinary practice want this?

A good idea

Nowadays more and more people are separating plastic waste, whether it is at home, at school and even in public places. So why does it seem so hard for small businesses to separate their waste? Especially when small businesses could make a profit out of it.

We came up with a program to create awareness, to improve the process of separating waste and to reduce the use of plastic.

How did we make it happen

After we got in contact with Veterinary Practice Europaplein we invited the stakeholders of the waste process and involved them to define objectives and responsibilities to improve the sustainable footprint of the practice.

These companies helped

Renewi, the waste collector advised to separate special kinds of plastic and adapted the waste collecting process.

Mark Verhage: “At Renewi we are always looking for opportunities to find as many renewable raw materials out of waste”

Thuisrecycling.nl advised using different bins for an optimum waste system in the veterinary practice.

Plastic waste

A veterinary practice produces tons of waste each year. Think about gloves, different foils, carton or any plastic object. Their waste needed to be separated in a plastic waste stream as well as more pure waste streams.

The process

Presentation for staff:

  • To create awareness for the plastic problem and solution
  • To involve them
  • To learn from them, opportunities and blockers

Staff determined:

  • Which bins they preferred in the different rooms
  • The number of waste streams

Assessment of the current situation:

  • The number and content of bins, inside and outside
  • How often the waste container was collected
  • The costs of waste collection

The reward

Veterinary Practice Europaplein is more sustainable. Due to the awareness in the veterinary about recycling and plastic waste, more waste will be separated. The results are as good as we could hope for. The veterinary has a decrease of 29% in residual waste, which results in fewer waste empties, from twice a week to once every two weeks. With fewer empties, the costs for residual waste will have a considerable decrease of 50% in year one.

Based on the current separation results, the expectation for 2019 is a decrease of the residual waste by 31% and the achieved environmental saving 53% of raw materials.

Create awareness

The staff has completely abandoned/let go of their resistance to separate waste and has become aware of the value of waste, in other words, they have become ambassadors of sustainability.

Next case