On October 10, 2018, the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council invited hospital environmental and facility managers along with medical device manufacturers and recyclers to join in an interactive workshop as one of CleanMed Europe’s Pre-Conference Events. The workshop, sponsored by HPRC member Johnson & Johnson, was designed to create a discussion-driven, knowledge-sharing space to dig into the challenges and possible solutions to recycling non-infectious medical packaging in the European market.
Attendees were provided with an overview of how Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark is mapping and sorting its plastic waste stream by Suzanne Backer before dividing into small group breakout sessions around stakeholder engagement, design guidance and waste management complexities. The culmination of those breakout sessions conversations and perspectives are captured in this workshop recap and recycling barrier map.
As European Union policies continue to push for recycling targets and increased recycled content, it’s abundantly clear that improved value chain collaboration is necessary to help build the market mechanisms that will make recycling economically viable. What more can medical device manufacturers, hospitals, public procurement, and recyclers do to enable circular solutions and scale-up plastics recycling in healthcare? These are the questions that HPRC will continue to ask and seek answers to.