East Cheshire NHS Trust was established in 2002 and provides services across a wide area of Cheshire. It operates three hospitals in Macclesfield, Knutsford and Congleton, as well as a range of community and outpatient facilities.

The Trust’s strategic Green Plan is a pioneering commitment and comprehensive strategy to deliver sustainable and high-quality services for the people of East Cheshire. The Plan highlights ways in which the Trust embeds sustainability within their organisations and works in partnership with system providers who positively improve sustainability to help achieve net zero in the NHS by 2040.

Stericycle has been working with the East Cheshire NHS Trust for over ten years. One of the crucial actions taken by the Trust in pursuit of its environmental goals has been the introduction of Stericycle’s Bio Systems reusable sharps containers.

Read on for a quick overview of the trust's achievements and download the full fact sheet for more information on how this pioneering trust is making big strides towards becoming an even more sustainable organisation.

East Cheshire NHS Trust wanted to find a way to make sharps disposal more safe, sustainable and cost effective. The Trust’s key requirements in selecting a new sharps disposal service provider were:

• Sustainability
• Safety
• Efficiency 

The Trust chose Stericycle to provide a comprehensive Sharps Management Service. Bio Systems reusable sharps containers were delivered and installed at Trust sites as part of this service.

Stericycle’s Bio Systems reusable sharps containers arrive on site as part of the regular waste service collection, helping to reduce road mileage and the associated CO2 emissions. The containers are quality checked, assembled and delivered to site as a whole unit - limiting the time Trust staff need to spend checking and assembling new containers when they arrive.

Stericycle also provides the Trust with a personalised carbon savings report on a quarterly and annual basis, to help them keep track of progress towards their sustainability targets.

In the last five years, Macclesfield District General Hospital achieved the following results by using Bio Systems reusable sharps containers:

• Saved 27,873 containers from incineration
• Saved 51.28 tonnes of plastic
• Saved 151,753kg of carbon 

Sarah Haigh-Turner, Service & Performance Manager at East Cheshire NHS Trust said:

“Climate change poses a major threat to our health as well as our planet. We recognise this as a responsibility everyone must share, which is why we take a proactive approach to reducing our environmental impact. 

Working with Stericycle over the last ten years has helped us to build sustainable practices into the fabric of our operations. We know we can depend on them to maintain consistently high service levels and their Bio Systems reusable containers support us to prioritise sustainability without compromising on the safety or cost-effectiveness of our sharps waste management.

It’s good to know that we’re making ongoing carbon savings to help meet our net zero goals and that we’re providing the highest quality healthcare possible to our communities.”

Download a copy of the full case study today!