Afbeelding
A lot of plastic is used in hospitals, especially in single-use applications; a theme that is becoming increasingly common. Hospitals are aware of this, and they want to explore ways to be more responsible and circular with their materials. This starts with waste.
Reason
Within hospitals, some of the plastic used is "clean". This is plastic waste, which has not come into contact with blood/tissue, meaning it is in principle suitable for use as recycled material for non-medical (circular) products. Hospitals have a lot of this kind of clean waste, which mainly consists of packaging made of PET, PP or PE, and these currently mainly end up in the bin and are incinerated.
There is a programme, HeartPlastic, that uses recycled material to make non-medical hospital items through 3D printing. It would be a good circular application to be able to recycle "clean" waste and then use it as a raw material to make these items. This will close a loop within the hospital and valorise discarded material.
What problem does the project solve?
The aim is to research and take stock of the possibilities of developing circular products based on local plastic cycles within hospitals (starting with Medisch Centrum Leeuwarden - MCL). In addition, it is investigated how this system can be scaled, in order to implement it at other hospitals as well.
Who is the project team?
NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences
Leeuwarden Medical Centre
How is the project team tackling this?
- Inventory of plastic streams and possible products (NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences)
- Pilot product development, together with MCL and make prototypes (NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, MCL in child contribution)
