Middlemore Hospital

Dyson delivers on a hygienic, sustainable, and fast hand drying solution in Middlemore Hospital, Auckland.

“At Hospitals, we have some unavoidable waste. We wanted to look at the waste we could avoid. We identified eliminating paper towel from washrooms could drastically reduce our waste to landfill and reduce our carbon footprint.”

- Alison Howitt, Improvement Advisor Ko Awatea, Middlemore hospital.

The Problem:

Middlemore Hospital wanted to reduce their waste and they identified paper towels in their Ko Awatea Building. It is a high traffic building with cleaners spending a lot of time stocking, restocking, and removing hand towel waste from the washrooms. Middlemore were aware of the high cost of paper towels and were conscious of the impact paper towel use has on the environment. Paper towels are rarely recycled, they are made with short fibers to be more absorbent which makes them unable to be recycled. Paper towels that have been used to dry hands can also be considered a biohazard. Each week they were seeing hundreds of bags of paper towel going to landfill.

The Solution:

Determined to take concrete actions to reduce waste and carbon footprint, Middlemore Hospital undertook a trial with Dyson to replace paper towels in their washrooms by Dyson Airblade™ V hand dryers in their Ko Awatea Building.

What appealed to them about Dyson over alternatives were:

• Fast drying times
• HEPA filters in all machines
• Performance & product reliability
• Cost to run
• Compact size

“We evaluated different hand dryers and preferred Dyson Airblade V over other brands because they were reliable, small, easy to place, touch free and have HEPA filters built in. Our main driver was the environment, hygiene and avoiding waste to landfill but also were interested in cost savings as well.”

Debbie Wilson, Principal Sustainability Advisor, Capital Investment Management at Ministry of Health New Zealand

The Benefits:

Middlemore hospital, since installing Airblade hand dryers has:

• Reduced number or cleaners ‘hours spent in this building and are now being utilized in different areas of the business.
• Reduced number of rubbish bags sent to landfill each year.
• Reduced on storage requirements of paper towels
• Saved money on not spending on paper towel

After a successful roll-out of Dyson Airblade™ V hand dryers, the hospital is now looking to implement this solution into other buildings. Next up is Dyson Airblade™ Wash+Dry roll-out for accessible bathrooms. This two-in-one solution means people in wheelchairs can wash and dry their hands at the basin and do not have to touch the wheels of their chair with wet hands.