Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio — The Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council is working to find solutions to medical plastic waste.
The group consists of almost 40 plastics materials firms and processors, as well as brand owners. Three members of the HPRC Executive Council took part in a panel Aug. 27 at the Advanced Recycling Summit in Cuyahoga Falls.
The main challenge facing medical plastics is that almost all plastic health care items — totaling more than 32 billion pounds in 2020 — is landfilled or incinerated because of concerns over contamination or recyclability.
"Our goal is to change that, so we have recyclers and major device makers and packaging companies working together," said Zach Muscato, corporate sustainability manager with thermoformer Plastic Ingenuity in Cross Plains, Wis.
Many recyclers try to avoid medical plastics because of "the yuck factor" associated with contamination, according to Robert Render, owner of the Lakeside 360 Partners consulting firm in Skokie, Ill. Many don't even want to handle clean packaging used for medical plastic products, he added.
Other items such as PETG trays or flexible film also can be difficult for recyclers to process, said Katherine Hoffman, sustainability strategic initiatives manager with materials firm Eastman Chemical Co. in Kingsport, Tenn.
Another challenge, according to Hoffman, is that hospitals that use large amounts of medical plastic items almost always do single-stream recycling of plastics with other materials. Hospitals "aren't built to have collection space for recycling, and it's hard for them to find space for a baler," she said.
As a result, there's no standard approach to medical recycling, and logistics at rural, suburban or downtown hospitals can be greatly different. "Nursing staff would need to be trained in the extra steps needed for recycling," Hoffman said.
The HPRC is working on a study to identify types and amounts of plastics that are available for medical recycling. The group then can determine how recyclable those materials are. The study will be released by the end of the year.
In Houston, HPRC is working with the Houston Methodist hospital system on identifying and sorting medical plastics. Westlake Corp. also is part of that program. "We need to find ways to aggregate that volume and tap into end markets," Muscato said.
Interest in medical plastics recycling remains high, making officials optimistic that a solution can be found.
"There's a lot of interest from funding sources to find models that can work, to create a network of collection from health care, including pharmaceutical and labs," Render said.
"Medical organizations are taking long looks at advanced recycling," he added. "They're holding us to a higher standard. Brand names want to defend their product."