The Erasmus Medical Center in the Dutch city of Rotterdam is investing Euro 10 million in an innovative recycling system to reduce the hospital’s waste volumes and thereby minimise pollution taxes as well as transportation costs.

The Pharmafilter system is designed to replace the existing labour-intensive approach whereby ‘each department has six different bins – yet a third of the waste is contaminated with things that do not belong in that stream’, explains Pharmafilter’s director Eduardo van den Berg in a Dutch media report.

The new system will be based on ‘patented’ Tonto-grinders that replace separate bins and are claimed to handle ‘almost any type of waste, from food to biodegradable pots’. Through internal hospital sewage grinding, the waste ends up in a fermentation and purification installation where it is further processed. What remains is biofuel, purified water and small volumes of plastics and metal scrap.

Erasmus Medical Center is one of the largest hospitals in the Netherlands. The innovative recycling system should be up and running in 2017.

 http://www.recyclinginternational.com/recycling-news/8598/other-news/netherlands/dutch-hospital-adopt-new-recycling-approach

Clearly, one to watch!