The healthcare sector’s reliance on single-use medical supplies—from surgical instruments to gloves to blood bags—has emerged as an urgent global environmental problem. Despite their surge in use in recent years, significant obstacles exist to recycling this type of plastic medical waste.

However, some industry experts believe the medical field looks promising regarding closed-loop plastic recycling, with only one issue being flagged—logistics. Several businesses are already attempting to tackle this problem.

Challenges in Recycling Medical Plastic

In the United States alone, each hospital patient generates about 33.8 pounds of waste daily. Plastics make up 20% to 25% of this figure. Here are a few obstacles that impede the recyclability of most medical plastic.

Contamination Risk

Around 85% of plastic waste exiting the hospital is clean and uncontaminated. However, adequate storage space is difficult to find. Without proper storage, this trash may become biohazardous since it may come into contact with biological substances. This contamination can severely hamper recycling, as strict sanitation methods are necessary to ensure safety.

For example, PET plastic is an excellent material for recycling. However, discarded blood collection tubes, which are mostly made of PET, cannot be easily cleaned and reused like other medical equipment made of glass or metal.

Material Diversity

The variety of plastics used in medical devices further complicates the recycling process. Different polymers have distinct melting points and properties. This means careful sorting is needed to prevent contamination and ensure the integrity of recycled materials. Thermosetting polymers—which are used as adhesives, coatings, and other hospital articles—cannot be remelted or re-formed, making them notoriously difficult to recycle.

Regulatory Constraints

Strict regulations govern the disposal of medical waste to prevent infection and contamination. Since hazardous waste makes up 15% of trash from health facilities, these regulations often favor incineration over recycling due to concerns about residual pathogens.

Innovations in Sustainable Medical Plastics

Despite obstacles hindering the recyclability of plastic waste produced by the healthcare sector, significant innovations are being made to address them.

Advanced Recycling Technologies

The emerging methods of chemical recycling and biorecycling give a ray of hope when it comes to recycling medical plastic waste instead of incinerating or tossing it into landfills. 

Chemical recycling essentially breaks down polymers into monomers or chemical building blocks, producing recycled materials with properties similar to those of virgin plastics. For instance, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used in IV bags and catheters can benefit from the depolymerization process, which breaks down the material for reuse in new medical-grade PVC products.

The European program VinylPlus has successfully reprocessed PVC hospital waste from masks and tubing via mechanical grinding, contributing to a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Biorecycling leverages microbes, such as bacteria or fungi, to decompose plastics into their basic components for reuse. CARBIOS and Selenis are set to produce polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) by biorecycling cosmetic and healthcare packaging waste. PETG is indispensable in the medical field, where it can be used for reprocessed sustainable medical plastics such as implants, sterilization trays and packaging.

Forward-Thinking Design

Manufacturers are increasingly considering the end-of-life of medical devices during the design phase. The process has become more efficient as businesses now opt for plastics that are widely accepted in recycling programs.

With consumers souring toward newly processed petrochemical plastics, eco-friendly plastics are on the rise. These engineered polymers are designed to be recycled. They either break down naturally, decompose in the presence of light, oxygen and heat, or are reprocessed into recycled PET (rPET).

How the Future Looks

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that only 61% of hospitals follow a basic waste management service. Advancements in recycling plastic medical waste are encouraging, but addressing the broader challenges requires a multifaceted approach.

• Policy development: Crafting tailored medical plastic waste management policies in collaboration with hospital administrators and policymakers can enhance documentation standards, product labeling requirements, and recycling practices.

• Technological advancements: Investing in research to develop cost-effective and scalable recycling technologies is crucial. Innovations in sorting, decontamination, and material recovery can significantly improve recycling rates.

• Industry collaboration: Partnerships between healthcare providers, manufacturers, and waste management companies can foster the development of comprehensive recycling programs. This ensures medical plastics are effectively recycled and reintroduced into the supply chain.

Close the Loop Through Sustainable Solutions for Single-Use Medical Plastic Waste

Resolving the healthcare industry’s problem with medical plastic waste is a team effort requiring cooperation from various stakeholders. With emerging recycling technologies like chemical recycling and biorecycling, as well as advances in material recovery, there is significant potential to repurpose medical plastics into valuable new products. While challenges remain—particularly regarding cost, scalability, and contamination—innovative approaches are actively addressing these issues.

The continued collaboration between medical device manufacturers, researchers, and regulatory bodies will be key to overcoming these hurdles. By embracing these sustainable solutions, the industry can shift from a linear waste model to a circular economy, reducing its environmental footprint and contributing to a more sustainable healthcare system.