We all know that it is increasingly important to be seen to be green, but can sustainability really boost the bottom line? In the case of precious metals recycling, the answer is a fervent yes – when the Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust released 75,000 medical x-ray records from storage for recycling, it benefited financially by almost £22,000.

Like many x-ray departments, Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust switched to digital photography some years ago but still maintains a large record of hard film. Adult radiology records must be kept for seven years; trusts store material themselves of employ storage companies to manage the process for them.

Bath chose to rent off-site storage space but manage the archive itself. As records reach their expiry date, they are highlighted for destruction, which helps to cut the storage costs and guarantee data security for the patients whose details are included on the records.

In 2012, three rooms reached their expiry date. Betts Envirometal was contracted to remove and destroy the film,  we were able to give back a healthy rebate of £4,499 from the silver embedded in the film and the trust also saved £17,500 in storage costs.

Paper and card were shredded and recycled for use in the fibreboard sector and with the silver removed, the film was processed, resulting in clean, washed PET plastic ready for re-manufacture. The combined effect of recycling equated to flying over 31,000km in short-haul flights.

Betts Envirometal General Manager explained that Storage companies often charge an exit fee per item, which gives the impression that the most effective option is to retain film indefinitely. However this practice can actually be in breach of the agreed retention guidelines set out by the NHS and as such when X Ray files have reached the end of their retention period, they should be released for destruction and not continually stored and since the material contains silver, it represents a real income to the waste producer, or hospital trust. The value of the silver can be used to offset storage costs and exit fees or, if they are savvy with contracts, trust FMs can avoid exit penalties altogether and factor rebates from precious metals into the annual budget.

The Betts Envirometal team thought the Royal United Hospital Bath NHS trust was particularly efficient in managing its records, which made it very straightforward to remove the film. Radiology Support Manager Morag Callow agreed that the trust’s storage system helped the process: “we made sure that each room was organised to contain records that expired at the same time. This took a little more staff time and work but ultimately resulted in greater cost savings.”