September 11, 2009
Adventist Medical Center Reduces Paper Waste by 120 Tons
By shredding and recycling confidential documents, a Northwest medical center has saved more than 239,000 pounds of paper from the landfill.
Adventist Medical Center, a not-for-profit, faith-based health system in Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., saved more than 120 tons of paper in the past year, according to a press release.
Cintas Document Management says the hospital’s efforts will save 2,032 trees and more than 836,000 gallons of water.
The efforts diverted about 359 cubic yards worth of waste from landfills.
AMC`s recycling data is based solely on confidential documents that were recycled, a service that Cintas Document Management handles.
In addition to confidential paperwork, the hospital recycled more than 28,400 pounds of non-confidential paperwork and 115,650 pounds of cardboard during the past 12 months.
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Reader Comments
The headline is misleading. While there are environmental benefits to recycling paper, reduced paper use isn’t one of them. Recycling is quite different from reducing paper use. The Medical Center has not reduced its paper use at all through the act of recycling.
Madalyn | September 14th, 2009
Today, 90% of paper pulp is made from wood. Recycling one ton of copier paper saves two tons of wood because during the process of converting wood into paper, lower quality fibers become waste.
Jad Smith | September 23rd, 2009