"Every single day, I can make a difference for the planet," says Legacy Health's Tom Badrick, who motivates 8,500 employees

Monday, August 27, 2007

By JOE ROJAS-BURKE

The Oregonian

A round Christmas last year, a truck delivered an odd present to Tom Badrick: 35 pallets containing about 140,000 used hospital scrubs.
He'd expected a few pallets of used blankets. But no worries, Badrick reckoned. As head of recycling for Legacy Health System, he finds it hard to say no when it comes to finding uses for stuff that might otherwise wind up in a landfill.
The mountain of scrubs came from a linen company that supplies hospitals. After a bit of networking, Badrick found a nonprofit group that's shipping them to hospitals in Iraq.
"I can't tell you how much I love this job," he says. "Every single day, I can make a difference for the planet."
When Badrick started the job seven years ago, he spent much of his time driving a truck loaded with recyclables between hospital buildings.
"It was all about logistics," he says. One day a realization hit: "I really am passionate about this."
He spends much of his time planning and executing strategies to recover more recyclables from the vast piles of paper, cardboard and plastic waste that hospitals generate.
A key strategy is keeping about 8,500 employees up to date and motivated. Badrick often visits different departments to look at what they are throwing away and to identify new stuff to recycle.
Paper is the most often neglected. No. 2 is plastic wrapping. Though it used to be tough to recycle, Badrick says, the increasing price of oil is spurring demand for waste plastics.
Among other recent projects, Badrick set up a system for hospital cafeterias to send kitchen and table scraps to a composting center, which turns it into a valuable soil amendment. The cost to Legacy is about the same as paying a garbage hauler, Badrick says. He hopes to lower the price by pooling expenses with nearby businesses.
Legacy spends about $1 million a year on waste management. Current recycling cuts waste disposal costs by about $289,000 a year, Badrick says. With income added to that from Legacy's in-house paper and plastic sorting center, savings total $315,000, he says.
"You can't keep a recycling program running forever by subsidizing it," he says. "It has to work economically."
Joe Rojas-Burke: 503-412-7073; joerojas@news.oregonian.com