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Study: Flexible Healthcare Packaging Materials Can Be Recycled

The recent HPRC assessment had some promising results for multi-material plastics from hospitals. The experts talk strategy and four important recycle-ready questions to ask yourself.

Nicholas Packet, DuPont Packaging Engineer, at Healthpack 2019 in Portland, OR, with Tristan Steichen, Senior Consultant at the Antea Group.
Nicholas Packet, DuPont Packaging Engineer, at Healthpack 2019 in Portland, OR, with Tristan Steichen, Senior Consultant at the Antea Group.

Each day, approximately 14,000 tons of waste are generated in the U.S. at healthcare facilities, with 20 to 25% of this waste coming from plastic packaging and products.

Brand owners are increasingly looking at reuse and recycle-readiness of their products. In healthcare, flexible plastics pose a unique challenge for manufacturers, said Tristan Steichen, Senior Consultantat the Antea Group,and Nicholas Packet, DuPont Packaging Engineer, at Healthpack 2019 in Portland, OR.

A big problem in the industry is the “ick factor” from a recycler perspective, as companies are worried that healthcare plastics are biohazardous. But Steichen noted that 85% of hospital waste is actually non-hazardous, meaning free from patient contact and contamination. Waste is heated during the recycling process, so the concern is based on worker safety and exposure, as well as questions about who will buy the recycled material. “We have to deal with that perception,” he said.

Flexible packaging recycling project

Recently, a ground-breaking assessment took place with the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC), three healthcare operating rooms, Erema Plastic Recycling Systems and UMass Lowell to:

  • Determine viable strategies for recycling multi-material flexible plastic

  • Test whether commercially available compatibilizers improve blend properties (compatibilizers areadditives that help recyclers improve yields of mixed-materials)

  • Identify potential end market applications for the recycled product

The assessment involved material collection from the Cleveland Clinic, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Lehigh Valley Health Network, followed by accumulation and sorting, pre-processing, processing and testing and application study.

Multi-materials

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