Resilient non-woven for the health care sector

Important results from the project

Non-woven products turned out to be a very heterogeneous product group with few mono-materials, making mechanical recycling more difficult. There is a need to evaluate the quality that could be achieved with thermochemical recycling to handle all non-woven products. The screening LCA showed great potential to reduce the products´ climate impact by material recycling tafter use or using bio-based and/or recycled raw materials. Furthermore, a checklist for better purchasing has been developed.

Expected long term effects

Hospitals can collect non-woven materials separately if there are recyclers available. This would keep raw materials local, which is crucial during crises. Although recycled materials cannot be used in medical devices today, they can free up virgin materials for other sectors, which would then have better access to recycled materials. Bio-based raw materials enable reduced climate emissions, and this is something that could be implemented in the relatively short term.

Approach and implementation

The regions contributed knowledge about the volumes of non-woven products, incl. identifying critical ones, & conducted a small collection trial. Other partners provided bio-based materials, information for the screening LCA, & worked on design for recycling and sterilization methods. RISE performed the GAP analysis for a resilient material flow, the screening LCA, conducted sterilization tests followed by material property checks, & carried out a small recycling trial of the collected material.