Select4Care

Pioneering Sustainable Solutions for Medical Plastic Waste Recycling in Healthcare

Although plastic has a significant environmental impact, it remains unavoidable in use in the healthcare sector due to its versatile properties. Select4Care takes up the challenge of focusing on increasing the recycling rate of medical plastic waste. This includes raising awareness among hospital staff, optimising medical plastic waste logistics processes, recycling-oriented product design and promoting high-quality recycling.

Denuo and VIL are joining forces to develop a circular approach for single-use plastic materials in hospitals. Currently, reuse is not possible for some medical instruments and packaging because recycling, sterilisation or reuse were not considered in design.

Moreover, plastic is sometimes still the best choice for certain (medical) materials, as new plastics allow for higher-performance and more precise instruments. Because attention to dismantling is important right from the design phase, it is also included in Select4Care: manufacturers are introduced to the issue of difficult dismantling in, among other things, co-creation sessions.

With the Select4Care initiative, the two NPOs aim to increase the recycling rate of medical plastic waste, focusing on relieving hospital staff and taking into account the lack of space in hospitals. The project includes rethinking the logistics around collection, dismantling and processing of medical plastic waste, as well as raising awareness among manufacturers to design 'recyclable' products for high-quality recycling.