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Simpler Recycling & Waste Disposal

This Project is likely to take ~1 month for a practice with 10,000 patients

Can be done by any staff member

Green Impact for Health Toolkit area: Waste & Recycling, Quality Improvement

CQC Areas

  • Safe (Safe environments)
  • Safe (Infection prevention and control)
  • Well-led (Environmental sustainability)

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The benefits of this project

Project benefits for Your Patients

Benefits for Your Patients

  • Less confusion over which bin to use
  • Less risk of hazards from inappropriate disposal
Project benefits for Your Practice

Benefits for Your Practice

  • Potential financial savings from improved waste streams. Clinical waste costs are typically 3.5 times the cost of managing domestic waste.
Project benefits for The Planet

Benefits for The Planet

  • Recycling reduces need for raw materials e.g. crude oil for plastic
  • Reduced incineration of clinical & domestic waste leading to fewer greenhouse gas emissions

Opportunity for improvement

  • Appropriate recycling and waste disposal is crucial to minimise hazards and environmental impact and reduce financial costs.  Waste disposal cost varies: recycling £114 per tonne, domestic waste £142 per tonne, clinical waste £337-457 per tonne. As much as 50% of clinical waste stream in the NHS has been misclassified and could be disposed of at a lower environmental and financial cost.
  • In 2025, the UK government introduced new legislation to ensure consistent recycling practices across England. Most businesses and non-domestic premises in England, including GP practices, are now required to arrange collection of 4 core waste streams:
    • Residual (non-recyclable) waste
    • Food waste
    • Paper and card*
    • Plastic, glass & metal (can be co-collected)*
    • *Ideally paper and card should be collected separately from other dry recyclables (plastic, glass & metal) to reduce cross-contamination.  Certain areas may collect them together if not practical to collect separately (check local council websites). Waste containers must have clear, visible labels indicating which materials should be placed in each bin. 
  • This project outlines how to simplify recycling and waste disposal in a GP practice via the provision of correctly labelled bins & staff education (see disclaimers).
  • You might like to create a SMART goal for this project e.g. review the recycling & waste disposal bins in the practice (number, type + location) and adjust them if needed to bring the system inline with the simpler recycling guidance within 2 months.

How to carry out this project

  1. Data collection

    Use the data collection form to audit the current waste disposal system at the practice

  2. Check the local council website to see what waste streams are collected in your area

  3. Discuss the data with the practice lead team and cleaning team and make a plan for what bins are needed, who will empty them and when

  4. Install the bins

    Arrange bins for each room.  Suggestions below but the exact type will depend on your practice needs.  Bins should be colour coded and clearly labelled. Template posters can be found here. You could use posters to update old bins rather than buying a new set of colour coded ones.

  5. Bins for clinical rooms

    Clinical rooms– 5 bins

    • Residual (non-recyclable) domestic waste (including highly contaminated food packaging which cannot be washed)
    • Paper & card recycling* (excluding items with glitter, foil, laminated paper, stickers, padded envelopes, books & wallpaper)2
    • Plastic, glass & metal recycling* (including plastic PET, PP, and HDPE containers (e.g., pots, trays, bottles) and certain plastic film packaging and bags made of specific materials (mono-PE, mono-PP, or mixed polyolefins)2
    • Infectious clinical waste +/or Offensive waste – will depend on staff activity e.g. if removing dressings, needs infectious waste

    • Sharps

    *Ideally paper and card should be collected separately from other dry recyclables (plastic, glass & metal). Certain areas may collect them together (check local council website for your area).

  6. Bins for non-clinical rooms

    3 bins

    • Residual (non-recyclable) domestic waste
    • Paper & card recycling (see above)
    • Plastic, glass & metal recycling (see above)

  7. Bins for other areas

    At least one confidential waste bin and one food waste bin will be needed and it may be sensible to have these in a central shared space rather than individual bins in each room. The practice should also consider if any other waste bins might be useful e.g. offensive waste, medicines contaminated infectious clinical waste.

    Other areas will also need bins e.g. kitchens, waiting rooms.

  8. Put up posters / displays on waiting room TV screens, to raise awareness of what should be put in each bin

  9. Staff engagement

    Engage and educate all practice staff to raise awareness of what to put in each bin. This could be in the form of email communications, a short training session including a quiz on which bin to use.

  10. Data collection

    Re-collect the data ~2 months after steps 2-9 implemented. Check in with the cleaning team to ensure they are happy with emptying the bins and the whole process.

  11. Study

    Review the results, summarise learning, share with practice team + decide if any changes are needed to improve the process. Decide when to re-audit again to ensure the change has lasted e.g. 3-6 months, then annually and use the Project Monitoring form to keep track.

Top tip

Use posters to update existing bins – you don’t need to go out and buy a full new colour coded set.

How to scale this project up or down

Please note - Use of this project requires NetworkPLUS membership. If you would like to share this project with others, please invite them to purchase their own membership—access must not be shared with non-members.

This project can easily be shared with other practices in your patch. It could be delivered as a PCN or cluster project.

Food waste

If your site has outdoor space +/- practice garden, you might like to consider an onsite composter which can be used to create compost to improve organic matter of the soil. Basic compost bins can be used for raw fruit and vegetable waste including coffee grounds and plastic-free teabags. Hot composters can be used for all food waste.  

Soft plastics recycling

Large supermarkets have soft plastic recycling bins which can be used for packaging including bread bags, crisp packets and biscuit wrappers.

You could have a separate bin in your staff kitchen to collect these items if there are staff happy to take them to the supermarket.

Other recycling

Many things have specific recycling options e.g. CALPOL® syringes, Insulin pens, hearing aids, physio equipment.  Companies such as ReFactory and Terracycle offer recycling for many products e.g. medicine blister packs.  You might advertise these options to patients and staff or set up a collection point at your practice.

Case study - Rethinking Food Waste

Frome Medical Practice Case StudyDownload

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 Tell us a little about your project in order to generate a certificate showing the probable benefits. This project may help with CQC evidence submission (see disclaimers).

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