Clinical waste treatment at Foch Hospital has helped cut costs
Before the installation, transporting and incinerating clinical waste cost more than €1,000 per tonne. This cost has been reduced by one third.
A 600-bed hospital in the heart of a densely populated urban area. More than 220 tonnes of infectious healthcare waste generated each year. Six collections per week by dedicated trucks, navigating already congested streets where ambulances need priority access for life-threatening emergencies. And a 72-hour regulatory limit that requires a continuous collection schedule.
This was the situation facing Foch Hospital in Suresnes before May 2023. Since then, the hospital treats its infectious healthcare waste directly on site using two Sterilwave 440 units. Here is what has changed, backed up by figures.
A leading hospital with a long-standing commitment
Foch Hospital is one of France's largest private not-for-profit hospitals. A private healthcare establishment of collective interest (ESPIC), located in Suresnes, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, it has approximately 600 beds and more than 2,300 employees, making it one of the leading healthcare employers in the Île-de-France region.
A centre of excellence for complex medical care, it is particularly renowned for maternity services, thoracic surgery, lung transplantation, urology, kidney transplantation, digestive surgery, cardiology, neurology, oncology and respiratory medicine. It regularly ranks among France's best hospitals in Le Point's annual rankings, with recognition in thirteen specialities in the 2025 ranking.
Its environmental policy also reflects this commitment. The hospital has established a dedicated sustainable development committee and a network of sustainability ambassadors, and manages more than 40 waste streams. Among these, clinical waste represented a particular challenge: a hazardous, regulated, high-volume and costly waste stream.
The challenge before Sterilwave: a waste stream under constant pressure
Before 2023, Foch Hospital's clinical waste management involved four major constraints.
A regulatory constraint. Clinical waste must be disposed of within a maximum period of 72 hours. This deadline determines everything else: it requires frequent collections, leaving no room for flexibility.
A logistical constraint. Six collections per week, equivalent to 25 to 27 dedicated trucks per month. In a densely populated urban area, these large vehicles were difficult to accommodate and disrupted traffic around the facility, including access for ambulances responding to life-threatening emergencies.
An economic constraint. Transporting and incinerating clinical waste cost more than €1,000 per tonne. With more than 220 tonnes generated annually, the financial burden was considerable.
A safety constraint. Infectious waste was stored on site while pending collection and then transported untreated, with the associated risks at every handling stage and every kilometre travelled.
The solution: treating waste where it is generated
Since May 2023, Foch Hospital has been operating two Sterilwave 440 units simultaneously. Having two machines is a key element of the project: it provides the capacity needed to handle the volumes generated by a hospital of this size while ensuring continuity of treatment.
The operating principle is integrated and takes place in a single step. Clinical waste is fed into the machine, where it is shredded and then disinfected using microwave technology within the same chamber. At the end of the process, the waste has been transformed into a homogeneous, treated material with no infectious risk, which can then be directed into a conventional waste management stream.
The technology processes all the usual types of clinical waste: syringes, dressings, medical textiles, plastics, medical glass and other contaminated waste.
At Foch, treatment takes place continuously throughout the day, five days a week, as waste is generated.
The results
10 trucks per month instead of 26 – and this is only the beginning. This is the most striking figure from the project.
| Before Sterilwave | With Sterilwave | |
| Collection frequency | 6 per week | 1 per week |
| Trucks per month | 25 to 27 | 10 |
| Vehicle type | Dedicated infectious waste trucks | Standard small trucks |
This reduction is made possible by the treatment process's performance: up to 85% less waste volume and a 25% reduction in waste weight. Waste that takes up six times less space and is no longer infectious no longer requires the same collection frequency or the same type of vehicle.
The impact on CO₂ emissions from transport is direct and measurable, while traffic around the hospital has been significantly reduced.
A 30% reduction in overall costs and a rapid ROI
Before the installation, transporting and incinerating clinical waste cost more than €1,000 per tonne. This cost has been reduced by one third.
The project's return on investment was estimated at approximately 4 years. For equipment with a service life extending well beyond this timeframe, the installation subsequently becomes a source of long-term structural savings.
Enhanced safety
The change is clear: clinical waste is no longer stored on the hospital premises and no longer leaves the site in its infectious state.
Treated as it is generated, the waste no longer accumulates in storage areas. What leaves the hospital is treated, non-infectious material. The risk of contamination associated with storing and transporting infectious waste is eliminated, both for hospital staff and external contractors.
Greater control over data
A less visible but significant benefit: Foch Hospital now has precise knowledge of the volumes of waste it generates.
Each load is weighed before treatment, and the equipment generates data in-house. Previously, these figures came mainly from the external service provider and could not be directly verified by the hospital.
For a management team overseeing a carbon footprint, a budget or ESG reporting, having access to its own data fundamentally changes the way these activities are managed.
A genuine organisation-wide project in which everyone has a role to play
"Setting up a project like this doesn't happen overnight. It requires coordination between logistical flows, external service providers, machine operators, general waste management and the hospital's various stakeholders.Over time, we have optimised how the machines are used, including their automation for lifting bins, for example, and the automatic cleaning of contaminated bins.
Today, I would like to involve all hospital departments even more, particularly healthcare professionals who work with clinical waste every day, even though we know they are already extremely busy,", Explains Julien Lagarde, Head of General Services at Foch Hospital
Capacity for the future
The installation provides considerable additional capacity. In the event of another pandemic or a significant increase in activity, the hospital can double or even triple the volumes treated simply by extending the equipment's operating hours, without any additional investment.
For a hospital that experienced the Covid-19 crisis and the resulting saturation of waste disposal facilities, this reserve capacity provides a degree of reassurance.
For Mr Lagarde, the conclusion is clear: "Covid was really the trigger for the project. I wish I had had these machines at the time. You cannot imagine what we were going through or the workload involved. Knowing that today we are autonomous and independent if another epidemic or disaster were to occur gives us peace of mind."
A local waste management circuit and an energy recovery loop
After treatment, the processed waste is transported to the energy recovery facility in Bezons, which is closer to Foch Hospital than the specialist facility previously used.
Thanks to the high calorific value of the treated waste fractions, this waste is recovered for energy production, supplying the district heating network.
The waste journey has therefore been completely redesigned:
Clinical waste generation → on-site treatment → disinfection and transformation → optimised transportion → energy recovery
Waste is no longer simply a stream to be disposed of, but becomes a resource within a circular economy approach.
A project with a social impact
Foch Hospital has entrusted the operation of the Sterilwave units and the transport of waste to the energy recovery facility to CEDRE, a supported employment organisation. The operators are people with disabilities.
For Mr Lagarde, this is the real success of the project: "We are bringing together environmental performance, cost savings, autonomy, new partnerships and inclusion."
This is a dimension that few technical projects manage to combine, and it deserves to be highlighted: bringing waste treatment in-house has created local, inclusive employment where an outsourced service previously existed.
A commitment driven by the teams
The success of a project like this depends on the involvement of technical, logistics and HSE teams. Since its launch, the project has been led by Julien Lagarde, Head of General Services at Foch Hospital, who regularly welcomes French and international delegations wishing to see the installation in operation.
"We are very pleased to be able to show our work to hospitals and foreign ministries. The human aspect of this project is a real added benefit, and the discussions always give us opportunities to improve."
What Foch's experience shows other healthcare facilities
For a hospital generating large volumes of clinical waste, Foch's example demonstrates that it is possible to:
- Reduce waste volume by up to 85%, reducing the amount of waste requiring collection;
- Reduce transport and treatment costs by a factor of four, with an ROI of 3 to 4 years;
- Eliminate the removal of infectious waste from the site and the associated storage requirements;
- Significantly reduce trucks movements and related emissions;
- Secure compliance with the 72-hour regulatory deadline, without depending on the availability of an external service provider;
- Regain control over waste generation data;
- Maintain reserve capacity to cope with increased activity;
- Integrate clinical waste management into an overall environmental and social strategy.
With more than 220 tonnes of clinical waste treated on site every year, Foch Hospital demonstrates that a different approach to infectious waste management is possible, even for a large hospital in a densely populated urban area.
Project overview
| Healthcare facility | Foch Hospital |
| Location | Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, France |
| Type | Private not-for-profit hospital (ESPIC), approximately 600 beds |
| Waste treated | Clinical waste – infectious healthcare waste |
| Installed solution | 2 × Sterilwave 440 |
| Commissioning date | May 2023 |
| Annual volume | More than 220 tonnes |
| Volume reduction | Up to 85% |
| Weight reduction | 25% |
| Transport | From 25–27 trucks/month to 10 trucks/month |
| Treatment cost | Reduced by 30% |
| Estimated ROI | 4 years |
| Operation | CEDRE, a supported employment organisation |
| Energy recovery | Bezons energy recovery facility |
On the same subject
Technology
