Sustainable materials and recycling in the medical industry

Syringes, IV bags, catheters and protective equipment such as masks, gowns and gloves are an integral part of modern medicine. But it is these disposable products made of plastic and plastic packaging that contribute significantly to a huge amount of waste in the industry. Recycling instead of disposing sounds easy. But where are the difficulties and what opportunities exist for the industry to become more sustainable, despite strict safety regulations?

At 4.8 million tons (source: Fraunhofer IWU), hospitals generate the fifth-largest volume of waste in Germany. In this context, the healthcare sector must also execute on the 2021 target of climate neutrality by 2045.

"Unfortunately, decarbonization is not yet one of the industry's priorities," says Michelle Dürksen, Sustainability Consultant at Atos in a  MEDICA-interview on the Green Hospital. "Decarbonizing the healthcare industry, and hospitals in particular, is a new and complex topic that requires competencies from a wide range of fields," she says.

But what makes the issue of Net-Zero so difficult? First and foremost, the issue is recycling. According to a new white paper published by the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU, 50 percent of medical devices are currently made of plastic. There are reasons for this, as Marc Luginsland explains, "Plastics have excellent mechanical properties, a low price and are very easy to process." The problem, however, is that around 60 percent are disposable products. Yet processes certainly exist to process the waste into plastic recyclates and then reuse them using established manufacturing techniques such as injection molding, extrusion or even additive manufacturing, as his colleague, Dr. Martin Kausch, head of department for systems and technologies for textile structures at Fraunhofer IWU, explains.

On the one hand, the problem in the medical field lies in collecting or sorting the plastics by type, Luginsland adds. In everyday hospital life, that seems difficult. On the other hand, there is also the fact that the products are potentially contaminated and can be highly infectious. This is another reason why the majority of medical waste is incinerated.

However, other raw materials are also lost as a result. Cardiac catheters, for example, also contain precious metals such as platinum and copper. The manufacturer Biosense Webster therefore launched a pilot project together with Resourcify to return used cardiac catheters to the raw material cycle.

In the process, the resource service provider's all-in-one platform not only demonstrates how to make operational processes efficient, but also the role that digitization plays in the issue. Not only were processes fine-tuned together with hospital staff to ensure that the actual task – namely treating patients – is not neglected, but waste management was also digitized. This makes work easier for the employees and even increases motivation, as Circularity Manager Meike Lessau explains in the video. Biosense Webster is also taking away insights from the collaboration. When developing new products in the future, the manufacturer wants to pay attention not only to quality and safety, but also to the recyclability of the materials used.

In implementing the project, however, the company also had to learn how many regulations lie behind the recycling process. Of course, this can also be a deterrent. Do the quality and hygiene requirements and the associated regulations prevent a successful recycling economy, we asked Marc Luginsland. "Exactly," he asnwered and continued: "These regulations in medical technology and in the approval processes lead to this. You have to provide evidence there: Where do the materials come from? Which materials are approved? Do they not only fulfill the material properties, but also other chemical and biological properties, such as compatibility and biocompatibility? You can't be sure of that with recyclates that come from hospitals. There are fluctuations in the batches. Those are issues that are just very big problems there to reuse the plastics directly for medical devices."

If current materials in medicine are difficult to recycle, might new materials be needed? "That's a variant, of course. To say I produce plastics based on renewable raw materials – so-called bioplastics –  which I then recycle for energy, thus generating a balanced CO2 calculation. But the problem is that these biodegradable materials sometimes do not yet meet the requirements of a medical product in terms of purity and the required properties," says Dr. Martin Kausch, answering this question.

Julian Lotz has already developed a solution here. With his company BIOVOX GmbH, he has proven that it is possible to meet the high requirements for medical materials with bioplastics. Where the motivation came from and what makes the compounds sustainable and thus also unique, he revealed in an interview with K-Mag.

In conversation with the experts from Fraunhofer IWU, however, it also becomes clear that the main focus should not only be the actual recycling process of possible waste products, but that decisions can already be made at the beginning of the value chain that significantly reduce the CO2 footprint. In the end, it's about the totality of measures, not just individual products.

Adam Mumford agrees. The director of medical devices at Owen Mumford says: "One effective way of reducing the overall environmental impact of a product is to review its whole lifecycle and consider where changes can be made. Can the number of components in the product be reduced? How is the product transported through the supply chain? Could the manufacturing process be more sustainable?"

The manufacturer of medical devices has set itself the goal of achieving Net Zero by 2045. To achieve this, it is not only taking a close look at its products. Mumford explains, "From the installation of new waste balers to compress and bale waste, additional LEDs, EV-charging points, and solar panels across all our sites." The British company is taking a holistic approach: "It is covering all areas of our global operations and infrastructure from buildings and energy to distribution and materials. Sustainably designed medical devices will optimise functionality, dimensions and packaging to create solutions with reduced emissions footprints that do not compromise on useability and safety."

But where does the motivation for this come from? Mumford explains it like this: "As an innovator of medical devices for over 70 years, we understand the importance of leading by example, and this responsibility encompasses the environment and our impact as a business as well as innovative product development." In this way, the British company hopes to inspire other companies in the industry to become more sustainable.

Because what also becomes clear with all the examples: It's not just about tackling the problem of plastic waste, but also about promoting a comprehensive sustainability strategy that takes equal account of social, economic and ecological aspects. And this can only be achieved if everyone enters into dialog with one another and strives to achieve more sustainable production and packaging measures.