The lack of dock space to stage or process materials is a common problem with developing a hospital recycling program. Docks are often cluttered and disorganized with material entering and exiting the facility. This resource provides guidelines on determining how much recyclable material your hospital generates and where, how it moves once it leaves there, and ways you can optimize your dock space to best support your recycling efforts. For more information, see hprc.org/hospitals.

1. Hospicycle Dock Space Guidelines
Materials Identification and Tracking
• First step is to identify the materials you are
generating at each of the rooms.
• Second step is to account for how much and
how frequently the material is been generated.
– These two steps will be easy to achieve if the
hospital completed a Value Stream Map (VSM) of
the process.
• On the next page you will find an example of
how to track all your materials.
– Create a table with a list of all the materials that
are generated at the different rooms.
– Give all the materials a unique number, for
example: Plastics will be B, and cardboard will be
G. Anytime you refer to B you know what material
is that.
• Next page also provides an example on how to
track quantities and frequency of movement
– Create a table listing the materials by number and
account for the amount of material that is
generated per room by shift/day/period, etc.
– The frequency is determined by you, depending
on the schedule. Ex. Some hospitals pick up trash
every 2 hours – so you need to account for how
much is generated in that period of time (kg/2hrs).
• Slide #3 provides an example of the flow of
materials.
– It is necessary to trace where the material’s going.
Not all the materials have the same flow. Follow
the materials flow, do not make assumptions.
– Identify any intermediate storage location, for how
long stays there, and where it’s finally going.
1
Guidance to use this document
• The following information provides some guidance in the use of the tools included on
this presentation.

2. DockArea
Example:
Labor and
Delivery
F E D
A B C
Identify materials generated by area and track approximate quantity
and frequency
Room 2
F E D
A B C
Room 9
G H I
B C F
Room 1
# Quantity Frequency
A
B
C
D
E
F
Example
# Material
A Laundry linens
B Plastics
C Trash
D Red Bag Waste
E Pharma Waste
F Other Recyclables
2
Room 1
F E D
A B C
Room 3
F E D
A B C
Room 4
F E D
A B C
Room 2
# Quantity Frequency
A
B
C
D
E
F
Room 3
# Quantity Frequency
A
B
C
D
E
F
Room 4
# Quantity Frequency
A
B
C
D
E
F
Room 9
# Quantity Frequency
B
C
F
G
H
I
Room 7
# Quantity Frequency
A
B
C
D
E
F
Room 5
# Quantity Frequency
A
B
C
D
E
F
Room 6
# Quantity Frequency
A
B
C
D
E
F
Room 8
# Quantity Frequency
A
B
C
D
E
F
Room 8
F E D
A B C
Room 6
F E D
A B C
Room 5
F E D
A B C
Room 7
F E D
A B C

3. DockArea
Cafeteria
G H I
B C F
Elevator
DockArea
ForCafeteria
Intermediate
station for
Cafeteria waste
B C F
Intermediate
station for
waste coming
from rooms
Elevator
Intermediate
station for
waste coming
from rooms
A B C
A B C
Daily x 2
collection
of waste D
Daily x 2
collection
of waste D
Daily x 2
collection
of waste D
Daily x 2
collection
of waste D
Intermediate
station for
waste D
F E
F E
Intermediatestation
forCafeteriawaste
G
H
I
Transfer of Materials (Example of waste flow)
Please note that amounts per waste stream were not included since this is
only an example (it is key to have approximate numbers).
*For the purpose of this example Waste D is Red Bag Waste and the flow is shown with the green line.
Room 1
F E D
A B C
Room 2
F E D
A B C
Room 3
F E D
A B C
Room 4
F E D
A B C
Room 6
F E D
A B C
Room 5
F E D
A B C
Room 7
F E D
A B C

4. Identify the dock that is most suitable for your recycling program based on:
• Proximity to recycling activities
• Proximity to existing recycling equipment such as balers, dumpsters, compactors,
totes, etc.
• Availability of space within the dock and the adjacent areas
• Ease of access for internal transfer of recyclables.
• Ease of access for the recyclers
The following layouts show some examples of the amount of space that will be
required from your dock space for your recycling program. In addition to this space,
please consider internal space for segregation, processing, storage and transfer.
Also consider adjacent exterior areas and the flow of materials between each area.
The boxes represent equipment that might need to be considered.
Reduced Spaces
Medium Spaces
Large Spaces
4

5. Scenario 1: Reduced Spaces
5

6. Scenario 2: Reduced Spaces
6

7. Scenario 3: Medium Space
7

8. Scenario 4: Medium Space
8

9. Scenario 5: Large Space