Fraunhofer Research Institution for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies IWKSCollection and recycling solution for high-quality medical device packaging (MedPackRecovery)
Previous activities to improve sustainability in hospitals have focused on the proportionately "large" segments of energy and water management. Material recycling of the special waste fractions generated in the medical context plays no or only a subordinate role - especially for hygienic reasons. Thus, the disposable items used in large quantities and their packaging are generally only thermally recycled.
As a result of the continuing trend towards the increased use of single-use products and instruments in the medical sector, the requirements placed on packaging are also increasing. In addition to ensuring sterile storage, mechanical protection, especially of high-value products such as video endoscopes or surgical instruments for minimally invasive operations, plays a decisive role in packaging development and design. Thus, the weight of a package, not only for consumables such as cannulas, but also for high-value items, is usually in the order of magnitude of the product to be protected.
Compared to the instruments and consumables to be protected, packaging does not come into contact with the patients after removal and is therefore generally not contaminated. From their rapid and targeted separation and collection at the point of occurrence in suitable containers, high-quality material fractions can be generated without the need for special hygiene and occupational health and safety measures in internal and external hospital logistics and can be fed into material processing with the aim of producing high-quality recycled material.
Thus, the development and implementation of solutions for the collection and recycling of high-quality packaging materials represents a first and concrete step towards circular economy in health care enterprises, which offers high economic chances of success in a very foreseeable time horizon.
A further potential lies in the design of packaging that is suitable for recycling. Possible principles here lie in the reduction of material diversity as well as simple separability of the components both during or shortly after removal of the packaging and in the reprocessing process. Within the scope of the joint project, basic indications and design principles for an appropriate design optimization are to be derived as a first step from the experience gained in the project.
Aim & approach
The aim of the joint project is to develop and test a material-specific take-back and recycling strategy for packaging materials generated in hospitals and to initiate its implementation. After the project duration of one year, processes for specific high-quality materials as well as for standard packaging materials are to be concretized in such a way that the necessary logistics and capacity for material recycling can be realized for the first regions.
Fraunhofer IWKS and IRED - Institute for Recycling, Ecology & Design will use their expertise in circular economy and recycling concepts to bring together the requirements of the value chain from manufacturers of medical devices and packaging, clinics and service providers of disposal logistics and plastics recycling and define a coordinated strategy. At the end of the project period, a coordinated solution with potential for implementation in Germany should be available.
Work packages
Quantification of the packaging input
- Identification of packaging relevant items in selected clinics
- Quantification of the quantity structure
- Selection of relevant clinic areas for separate packaging collection
- Preparation and implementation of approx. 2-week collections of packaging in ongoing operations at 3-4 clinic locations
Material balancing
- Sifting and systematization of packaging types according to criteria such as design, types of materials used, typical fields of application and accumulation locations
- Sorting of the collected quantities according to the systematization carried out as well as identification of the most relevant quantity shares
- Determination of the materials used and preparation of a material balance
Recycling potentials
- Assessment of the basic recycling potential
- Research of appropriate recycling companies for secondary plastics
- Conducting interviews to determine specific acceptance criteria, achievable recycling and recovery rates, and indications of material revenues
Outline of an overall solution
- Clarification of internal and external collection and logistics options
- Definition and organizational description of the overall concept
- Economic evaluation
- Preliminary planning of an implementation in a consortium and inclusion of possible economic participants