Sustainable management of plastic waste from medical care

Purpose and goal

The long-term objective of the project is to develop methods to make the management of plastic waste from health care more sustainable, through increased recycling, reuse and prevention. The goal of the initial project was to acquire greater knowledge of plastic waste from health care, to plan the future development work. The goal of has been achieved, and we have begun to pursue the long term goal. We have carried out the activities that were planned and we have achieved the expected results.

Results and expected effects

We have gained a better understanding of plastic waste from health care, and the obstacles and opportunities that are associated with its management. There is a large amount of plastic waste (clean packagings) that should be easy to bring into the existing recycling system. There is other plastic waste that is potentially infectious or contaminated but that must be controlled and pre-treated in various ways before it can be brought into the recycling system. There are also various national and international projects and initiatives that also aim to increase plastic recycling.

Approach and implementation

This initial project consisted of a number of activities such as - case studies (for example source separation at hospitals) - State-of-the-art-analysis - Actor analysis and analysis of obstacles and opportunities - Development of the constellation/consortium - Development of contacts with other national and international projects All these activities has been accomplished according to the plan, ans we have gained the results expected.