Copenhagen hospital to cleanse medicine from its waste water

New system has climate and savings benefits

A new cleaning system at Herlev Hospital will cleanse medicine-ridden waste water to the extent it can be reused as drinking water.

In addition to being more climate-friendly, the new system will also save the hospital 4.5 million kroner a year in fees it currently pays the municipality to cleanse its waste water.

“We want to ensure the water leaving our system is so pure we can divert it to the water environment,” Jess Krarup, one of the project’s engineers, told Politiken newspaper.

“The municipal cleansing system can no longer handle the medicine, but we will be able to.”

READ MORE: Doctors blast new super-hospitals

More = cheaper
Among the improvements compared to the municipal system is the ability to filter away environmentally-harmful medical waste such as antibiotics.

The new system is also scheduled to be incorporated in 10 out of the 14 new super-hospitals currently being constructed nationwide.

The new system costs 25 million kroner, but should it prove to be a success, the price will decrease for any future systems being built elsewhere.





  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.