Sunrise Senior Living UK and Gracewell Healthcare
Waste handled across 0 care homes
Reconomy is responsible for all waste across 64 care homes located nationwide
Contracted to 0 more years
Having delivered substantial cost savings, the contract was extended in March 2020 for a further 3 years
Support through the COVID 0 pandemic
Support, guidance and expertise provided during the ongoing COVID pandemic
Sunrise Senior Living UK and Gracewell Healthcare are award-winning providers of care, nursing and assisted living for the elderly, with 46 high-quality, bespoke and luxury care homes located nationwide. Sunrise and Gracewell are collectively responsible for the continued well-being of more than 43,000 seniors.
As a healthcare operator, it is critical for Sunrise and Gracewell to receive a waste management service that maintains a strong emphasis on health and safety, with rigorous attention to detail for the compliant processing of all types of clinical waste. This is exactly what Sunrise and Gracewell have received from Reconomy, which is responsible for the collection and safe disposal of all waste across each care home including clinical, sharps and sanitary waste, alongside less-hazardous materials such as food, glass, dry mixed recycling and general waste.
Reconomy’s account management team regularly carry out site audits together with bin sizing exercises to ensure each care home is getting the most efficient and cost-effective services across all waste streams. This involves checking the capacity of all waste containers against the frequency of their collection to ensure bins are not being under-utilised or overloaded, which can result in additional disposal charges.
By working closely with its supply chain, Reconomy has also been able to provide certainty to Sunrise and Gracewell that all waste contractors are adhering to the strict waste collection timeslots set out by each care home. To ensure there is no disruption to residents, collections do not take place either first thing in the morning or late at night. Where suppliers have been unable to meet these requirements, Reconomy has taken decisive action to swiftly source alternatives, ensuring the client’s needs are met.
Following a rebidding process in December 2019, Reconomy was proud to successfully retain the contract, whichwas agreed just as the Coronavirus pandemic was beginning to take hold, with the UK’s initial period of lockdown commencing shortly afterwards in March 2020.
During this extremely difficult period for Sunrise and Gracewell, Reconomy has continued to be proactive and provide all the support possible, acknowledging the immense strain and pressure being placed on care homes. Reconomy has many years of expertise supporting the healthcare sector and it has been our role to ensure all of Sunrise and Gracewell’s waste services have remained compliant in line with government guidelines during this unprecedented period, offering specific guidelines and instructions to correctly manage on-site waste.
Proactive solutions have been put in place to deal with the surge of clinical waste being generated at each care home due to COVID. Extra clinical waste bag deliveries have been arranged, and the frequency of scheduled collections increased, with emergency same-day collections available for care homes with a high increase in waste due to residents contracting COVID.
Communication has been critical throughout the pandemic, with regular calls taking place with care home managers and the facilities management team to discuss priorities and advise on the fluctuating situation concerning regulations and waste segregation. To provide further assistance Reconomy prepared a waste segregation guide specifically for care homes, advising on waste types and disposal processes, which has been promptly distributed to all Sunrise and Gracewell care homes.
Though the pandemic has tested everyone’s resolve, Reconomy will continue to support Sunrise and Gracewell to the best of its abilities. Even during this difficult to time Reconomy is continuing to look ahead, and plans are already in place to introduce new waste management innovations across all Sunrise and Gracewell care homes when the time is right, such as coffee ground recycling, closed loop PPE recycling, and uniformed signage and labelling systems.