2025 forum: Collaboration, progress and a shared responsibility in sustainable healthcare waste management
Clinical waste management professionals gathered in London and West Yorkshire to gain industry insight and actionable advice for improving environmental sustainability and learn about Stericycle’s partner-focused commitment to a low-carbon future for the NHS.
The NHS is taking meaningful action to build a low-carbon future. In many areas of waste management, it is leading the way for other health systems to follow. And it has bold ambitions. But busy wards face real-world pressures and increasing complexity, which can make waste segregation - as an integral part of the sustainable healthcare waste management - understandably difficult.
Stericycle has been managing waste for healthcare organisations for more than 35 years. During that time, we’ve partnered with NHS organisations to support their progress through awareness-building, education and practical solutions.
As part of our ongoing commitment, we organise waste management events that facilitate meaningful discussions that promote collaboration, progress and a shared sense of purpose. The 2025 Stericycle Forums were a CPD-accredited event series held at The Royal College of Surgeons in England, London and Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Doncaster, in June.
The two events brought together industry-leading experts, Stericycle specialists and more than 100 UK healthcare professionals, waste managers and sustainability leads.
Waste managers are doing a brilliant job despite complex challenges
Clinical waste management has become extremely complex in a relatively short time. While we’ve made good progress, there’s still more to do.
These were the words of Dr Anne Woolridge, Independent Safety Services Ltd’s Chief Operating Officer, who told attendees: “We’ve come a long way in the last two decades. In 2004, we didn’t have an authorising engineer system for waste management. And we only had two colours: burn it and bury it.”
Anne, who led the 2023 rewrite of the HTM 07-01, praised waste managers for the brilliant job they’re doing despite today’s ongoing challenges. Compared to 20 years ago, waste professionals have more waste streams to manage, a broader range of people, evolving legislation, increased organisations involved (often with conflicting responsibilities), and higher volumes of waste from hospitals — including single-use instruments and PPE.
She explained that NHS England spends 0.1% of its annual budget on waste disposal and there’s 1.4 million employees to train.
Bridging the gap between intention and action
Educating frontline staff remains one of the most pressing challenges facing NHS trusts in clinical waste management. This is according to 2024 data from an independent survey conducted on behalf of Stericycle that gathered the perceptions of health care professionals involved in clinical waste management.
The findings, revealed by Natalie Gee, Stericycle’s Senior Commercial Director, suggest that current efforts to raise awareness and compliance could be falling short. While just over half of healthcare professionals (51%) feel they've received adequate initial training, fewer respondents report getting sufficient refreshers (49%).
She told delegates that A resounding majority of respondents also agree that sustainable practices benefit community health (91%) and can help prevent long-term harm caused by poorly managed regulated waste (93%). But a lack of time (52%), understanding on what can be reuse/recycled (31%) and the effort involved (25%) are primarily preventing practitioners from sorting more waste.
Results shared at the forum also showed that almost all health care professionals agree that improper disposal of healthcare waste puts the physical safety of workers at risk (94%), and without proper management and disposal of healthcare waste, they could not do their job effectively (89%).
Natalie said: “These figures reflect a gap between intention and action: healthcare providers recognise the need for sustainable, safe waste practices, but without proper investment in both people and budget, progress will remain limited. While there is awareness of sustainable practices, the implementation is being stalled by practical constraints on time, resources and apathy.”
National commitment to progress
In response to these challenges, national initiatives have helped organisations to improve clinical waste management. The NHS introduced the first ever professional qualification in healthcare waste management, led the way globally by embedding net zero carbon targets into legislation and delivered successful campaigns such as Gloves Off to reduce unnecessary waste.
Dr Matthew Sawyer, an environmental sustainability consultant, said these actions are helping the NHS move up through the levels of environmental sustainability maturity.
He said: “There are so many positive things taking place across the health service, like how the NHS is mandating sustainability for its suppliers, the NHS’ public commitment to carbon neutrality, and the increasingly advanced waste segregation practices.”
Funding to build a more confident workforce
The NHS has also funded some vital resources to help waste management professionals improve their understanding of low-carbon practices and boost their confidence in improving sustainability, as Helen Taylor, sustainability business consultant and Healthcare Coordinator at Carbon Literacy Project, explained.
Helen told attendees how certified, sector-specific carbon literacy training can help build a low-carbon future in healthcare. She highlighted a ready-made, pre-accredited toolkit that’s free for NHS organisations to use. Plus, anyone can then become a certified trainer.
She said: “We have an ethical duty to reduce the effect on the climate crisis. Carbon literacy training is part of the solution. It’s a useful tool to catalyse action and give individuals knowledge about climate to make decisions in their workplace and at home about how to reduce emissions and support those necessary goals.
“It helps to reduce climate anxiety and build more confidence in communicating the motivational action that we need to take with other colleagues. It helps build a more engaged and confident workforce to embed a low-carbon culture.”
Our shared values for serving the NHS
While there’s more work to be done, we have a solid foundation for progress.
“Now we've developed this waste segregation system, we need to use it correctly,” said Anne. “We need to segregate properly, label accurately and collect good data. And we need sensible procurement to reduce waste generation at source.”
Natalie added: “The message is clear, for a more sustainable environmental organisation, we need more education, clear protocols and greater investment in waste management systems. As environmental standards and expectations rise, it's more critical than ever that we ensure our waste and end-of-life products are managed responsibly.
“But beyond compliance, we believe sustainability and safety are shared values; ones that drive how we do business and how we serve our customers to better understand their perspectives, priorities and concerns.”
We're in this together
Stericycle is committed to empowering collaboration, progress and a shared responsibility in sustainable healthcare waste management.
We’ll keep the conversation going by enabling positive discussions like these alongside regular education activities we provide within our customers’ facilities – for staff, patient and visitor awareness. And we’ll continue to develop innovative solutions, including our Bio Systems reusable sharps containers, that support the sustainability goals of NHS organisations.
Get in touch to learn more about Stericycle’s role as a trusted partner on our shared journey with the NHS towards a low-carbon future.
