We spoke to Amanda Lloyd, sustainable waste manager as part of National Healthcare Estates and Facilities Day.
Amanda, what’s your role in our hospitals?
I have been the Trust’s Sustainable Waste Manager since 2017, responsible for Waste segregation, Pre-acceptance (clinical waste) audits and more increasingly, as part of the Energy and Sustainability team, in the Capital, Estates and Facilities Management directorate.
I’m responsible for encouraging departments to re-think the way they work and buy things i.e. what they buy in and how they dispose of the end product, to eliminate unnecessary wastes, repurpose redundant items wherever possible, or recycle.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
Anyone that knows me, knows I am very passionate about my “rubbish” job to the point I was (lovingly) for many years, referred to as the bin lady, stig of the dump, mother of bins, but nowadays I am CUH’s binfluencer!
I really enjoy being able to research into the various products and consumables that we buy, to determine if there are more sustainable ways of dealing with them i.e. recycling rather than incinerating.
It is surprising how often, when staff revaluate their processes and procedures, discover that certain steps are no longer required, or where never relevant in the first place and are just carried out because they always have been or ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it!’
By designing unnecessary processes out, we can eliminate entire waste streams. I also love those days were you have a situation that you think is going to be really difficult or almost impossible, and then you meet another member of staff or contractor that says “that’s not a problem, we can work it out” those days really make you remember why the NHS is what it is.
Tell us a bit about your CUH journey – when did you join, what positions have you held here and why you like working at CUH?
My husband and I were pub managers for four years but left when our son reached primary school age as we wanted to make more time for him to enjoy after school clubs, scouts etc.
We moved back to Cambridge and the rest is history! I started working for Addenbrooke's on 07 April 2003, as a Quality Monitoring Officer (now known as a QAO – Quality Assurance Officer) for the Central Team in Hotel Services (now Facilities Services).
My main duties where to check the cleaning and maintenance on all of our wards and clinics. I was really proud to be responsible for checking every part of the patient environment, making sure it was clean and safe.
As I was visiting several different areas every day, I became increasingly curious about how much waste we generated, and what happened to it all. This was in the days when almost everything went into a yellow clinical waste bag, regardless of whether it was clinical waste, offensive waste, domestic waste or recyclable.
I began asking questions about how all of this waste was being managed and was fascinated by the incinerator and how such a small team dealt with it all so efficiently.
To learn that we are the only NHS hospital to own and operate its own energy from waste incinerator (which means, that by incinerating all of our clinical wastes we are providing heat and steam to the majority of CUH) blew my mind and I was hooked!
I was successfully appointed to the role of Environmental Services Co-Ordinator with Environmental Services in 2008, originally managing the Waste Team, but as time went on and legislation changed, new regulations were brought in, there was a need to carry out Pre-acceptance (clinical waste) audits and implement waste segregation across the entire hospital. Due these changes, my role changed significantly, and I joined the Energy and Sustainability Team in 2014.
I have so many other non-work related memories that date back to the early 90’s when I was a teenager, before I even lived in Cambridge. Not all are happy but the majority are. My son was born here in 1995 as were all of my Grandchildren….so far!
What does a usual day look like?
I never know what questions are going to be asked, or what situations will come up, so most days vary.
CUH generates 12 tonnes of waste a day, 6-8 tonnes of that are offensive and clinical wastes which are just 2 of our 38 different waste streams, the majority of which are recycled, repurposed or reused.
Ultimately everything that CUH buys, is brought in through the service yard to goods in and eventually goes back out as waste or recyclable material.
A large proportion of my role now is to analyse what we as a Trust are using, what wastes are being disposed of, and whether we can minimise it and if not, can we use more sustainable alternatives.
Once a month we offer Waste Tour Wednesday’s. The tours are on the first Wednesday of each month and have been running for a year, and have been extremely popular with staff, volunteers and recently we had a visit from a local charity that supports adults with learning disabilities and autism.
The tours are a cradle to grave journey guided by Rob Hemming (process and resource manager) and myself, that shows how our wastes are segregated and disposed of at ward/departmental level, via our internal chute system, down to our level 1 chute rooms and transported by tug through our vast network of corridors out to the service yard for incineration, treatment, recycling, compaction etc.
We highlight the reasons why we ask you to “sort it out!” by segregating your wastes, the importance of doing so and how you can help ensure CUH disposes of its wastes safely, legally, and sustainably. There are 6 tickets available each month and so far, they have all been snapped up within hours of being advertised on Connect.