Containers for your Health and Social Care waste and recycling needs

Estimated reading time: 5 min

Providing the right bins and containers for your waste and recycling, and storing them in the right location, is essential for helping your staff, patients, clients and visitors separate waste more effectively and increase the amount your business recycles.

In deciding what kind of waste and recycling containers and storage areas your business needs, think about these two questions:

What types and quantities of waste materials does your workplace generate?
For example, a hospital or nursing home may produce large amounts of waste plastic and cardboard from packaging from medicines etc and food waste from their patients, while an office or surgery likely generates larger amounts of paper and plastic packaging, glass and metals as opposed to food waste.
Where in your organisation is waste being generated, and by whom?
For example, a hospital kitchen may produce larger quantities of food waste, but its consultation rooms will likely produce mainly paper, card and plastic.

Answering these questions will help you manage the way waste and recycling moves through your premises. For example, you can position internal containers and bins in the places where waste is generated, such as in the kitchen where patient meals are being prepared and where medically appropriate, near wards.

Checklist: choosing the right bins for your organisation

Large enough to contain waste and recycling between emptying but not too large so that they are difficult to manoeuvre or lift. WRAP recommends that containers used internally to separate food waste, for example in a food prep setting, should be 35 litres or less and that external containers used to present food waste for collection should be no larger than 140 litres, for manual handling reasons.
With lids or covers to keep materials dry and stop waste and odours escaping
Store different types of waste separately so that they don’t contaminate each other – this also means you can reuse them more easily, and it’ll be easier to complete your waste transfer note correctly
Label containers clearly with the waste they contain

How to keep waste and recycling separate

It’s easiest to separate recyclable materials from general waste at the point where it’s produced. Here’s your recycling separate from other rubbish:

Create recycling stations where waste and recycling are generated and include a container for general waste
Colour-code containers consistently throughout your premises to reduce confusion
Use our material-specific recycling posters to label bins – they use distinctive colours and images that are used and recognised nationally across recycling services
Provide training – communicate the changes to your employees and cleaning and maintenance staff/contractor, providing separate training where necessary
Reward good practice – as this will encourage further improvements

Good to know
There is no official colour coding system for bins in the health and social care sector, however the Health Technical Memorandum (HTM) 07-01 provides a framework for good waste practice (with regard to the colour scheme of bins) in the health sector across the UK.
It is good practice to establish a colour system for food waste, dry recycling materials and general waste. Clear labelling and consistency of colour of the waste and recycling containers is especially relevant in the health and social care sector and should minimise materials ending up in the wrong bin.

You can also speak with your current cleaning or waste about supplying new bins if they’re needed.