30
2020
Research
Salvaging materials from the
emergency room
With new technology and legislation on the horizon, more recyclers are looking to serve niche markets. One example is the
medical waste sector, which has seen a flurry of activity in recent years.
T
he global medical recycling industry’s
worth exceeded US$ 11 billion (Euro 9.75
billion) in 2017. Strong annual growth of
5.3% is expected to increase this figure to US$
15.5 billion by 2023 and to over US$ 20 bil-
lion by 2025, according to market analysts at
Absolute Reports. They argue that the only
growth constraint is ‘the need for high capital
investment’.
The average hospital generates around
two million tonnes of clinical waste annually.
Healthcare facilities in America alone gener-
ate around 13 000 tonnes of waste per day,
of which up to 25% comprises plastics, such
as packaging; the World Health Organization
(WHO) reports that the proportion of plastic
scrap is as high as 41% in Taiwan and as low as
12% in Turkey. Metal waste tends to represent
5-10% of the total worldwide while the paper
waste share varies from 20% in Europe and
North America to over 35% in Latin America.
Roughly 40% of plastic scrap generated in
US hospitals is sterilisation wrap, while 25%
is other flexible non-woven and film packag-
ing, 19% is paper, 12% is rigid plastics and
the remainder is a mix of glass, metal and foil.
Hope for plastics
Spectrum Health, a non-profit hospital in
Michigan, recently discovered that removing
the lead from blue wrap is a recycling ‘game-
changer’. Without the metallic content, plastic
fibres can be melted down and reused in the
manufacturing of polyethylene terephthalate
(PET) bottles and various other plastic items,
increasing Spectrum’s medical waste recy-
cling rate by almost 20%.
This makes medical waste recycling sound
easy but many materials are incinerated or
landfilled without reason, according to the
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