Medical plastics

Renae McBrien (Queensland Children’s Hospital)

CODE GREEN – Tackling the impact of single use plastic in the health care sector

Plastics comprise up to a third of hospitals’ general waste and 40-60% of the clinical waste streams. Modern healthcare has a critical reliance on single use plastic and ultimately generates a largescale waste problem within any hospital, with a significant portion missing the opportunity to be segregated and captured into recycling. There is little understanding of the lifecycle of medical plastics, with no labelling, plastic identification or product stewardship to support a circular economy in Australia. Queensland Children’s Hospital (QCH) delivers national leadership on sustainable management of medical plastics. The QCH have eliminated over 1 million pieces of single use plastic from their health care service and have developed clinical pathways to segregate and recycle plastics from critical care areas. The QCH Operating theatres have delivered a 40% reduction in landfill since introducing plastic recycling in theatres. QCH now segregate 1100L of clean, repeatable plastic every day which represents potential value and feed stock to the recycling and manufacturing industries. These initiatives will contribute to solving Australia’s plastic waste problem and advancing the sustainability of plastic use in healthcare.

Dr Trevor Thornton (Deakin University)

Plastic waste in healthcare: what is happening internationally – how and why

Measurement of plastics used in healthcare generally only considers what is used in healthcare facilities – not what is generated from what could be termed domestic use (including hospital in the home services). In addition, a large percentage of plastics in healthcare are “soft plastics that result from the packaging of the actual equipment that is not generally considered in the quest for reductions in plastic usage.

Strategies advocated and implemented internationally will be considered as options that should be adopted in Australia to reduce the total type and quantity of plastics used in healthcare. The learnings will be considered as to how we can implement them. The flow on will be reductions in the domestic generation and greater awareness to the community of what can be achieved.

Helen Jarman (Medcycle)

Closing the loop: Medcycle’s roadmap for effective plastic recycling in healthcare

Current hospital waste management systems face significant challenges in achieving effective recycling outcomes for plastics in healthcare settings. These challenges include inadequate segregation of recyclable plastics, contamination of waste streams, lack of standardised protocols, and insufficient awareness and training among healthcare staff.

Dr Leonie Walsh (Solving Plastic Waste CRC)

Medical waste: challenges and missed opportunities

Delivery of healthcare requires a broad range of treatment options both in the hospital and in the home. The nature of the treatments and risk of infection has resulted in practices that depend on  single use of many of the treatment materials with many of these materials being made from single use plastics As a result the healthcare industry is a significant contributor to plastic waste generation.