Carbon footprint of hospital laundry: a life-cycle assessment.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a regional hospital laundry unit, and model ways in which these can be reduced.

Design

A cradle to grave process-based attributional life-cycle assessment.

Setting

A large hospital laundry unit supplying hospitals in Southwest England.

Population

All laundry processed through the unit in 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years.

Primary outcome measure

The mean carbon footprint of processing one laundry item, expressed as in terms of the global warming potential over 100 years, as carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e).

Results

Average annual laundry unit GHG emissions were 2947 t CO₂e. Average GHG emissions were 0.225 kg CO₂e per item-use and 0.5080 kg CO₂e

SUBMITTER: John J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10910404 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature