By Cianna McNally

MONAGHAN General Hospital recently held an Environmental Week to promote the positives of reduce, reuse and recycling to staff, patients and visitors.

Operating a hospital to the highest possible international environmental standards is no easy task.

However, the management and staff of the General Hospital have implemented a number of initiatives to ensure environmental targets within the hospital are reached.

“Waste Management is a serious and costly environmental problem for all hospitals. Risk waste is expensive to treat and dispose of and non-risk waste needs to be segregated into recycling and non-recycling fractions,” said Nial O’Connor from the Environmental Services in Monaghan County Council.

And he added: “A comprehensive segregation scheme is in place and continued education and awareness of waste issues is a top priority for Monaghan General Hospital to ensure full compliance with waste management procedures.

“The running of Environment Week in the hospital was part of an overall environmental management programme that the hospital is operating at present. 

“The Waste Prevention team from Monaghan County Council’s Environment Section provided assistance during the week by giving out information on waste management, energy efficiency and water conservation to staff and visitors.“

Monaghan County Council is participating in a demonstration project as part of the National Waste Prevention Programme, which is being funded by the Environmental Protection Agency through the Environment Fund.

“Waste Prevention is the best form of environmental management, if you do not create the waste you do not have to deal with it and therefore there are no environmental implications,” continued Mr O’Connor.

Currently Monaghan County Council is assisting St. Davnet’s, St. Mary’s and Monaghan General to improve their already high environmental performance through adopting a preventative approach to waste management.