Complicated Castoffs: The Washington Post posted an interesting article this morning about hospital waste. The central message seems to be that no one has a good handle on how much total trash U.S. hospitals produce. The most commonly cited figures are from decades-old surveys. But everyone seems to agree it's a large amount.

One 2010 survey, while its sample size is small and its methodology somewhat imprecise, estimates that U.S. hospitals generate 5.9 million tons of waste annually. For comparison's sake, Americans produced a total of 250 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2008.

Here's another good take-home point from the Washington Post piece: "Hospitals don't just produce a lot of garbage; they produce fantastically complicated garbage. Besides all the paper, linens and food waste they generate, they also churn out unused and expired pills, infectious waste, hazardous lab chemicals, electronics and a host of other materials that need to be carefully separated and treated to minimize their impact on the planet."

On An Odyssey Toward Zero: According to this item posted yesterday by Business Week, Honda Motor Co. says eight of its 14 plants in North America have reached zero-waste status, defined as sending no waste from manufacturing activities to landfills. And the automaker further projects that its other six North American plants will reach the same standing by next year.

Among the other interesting stats in Honda's latest environmental impact report, 90% of the parts in the company's new cars are recyclable; and the company says it has eliminated 4,500 wood pallets and 514,000 pounds of corrugated material that was being used for auto parts shipments.

Pete Fehrenbach is managing editor of Waste & Recycling News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.