Fraunhofer Institute publishes white paper on the recycling of medical materials

The medical sector in particular, which is one of the five largest producers of waste in Germany, still has huge recycling potential - especially in the area of medical products. This is because almost 60 per cent of these products are classified as disposable, which results in large quantities of waste - and the trend is rising.

In most cases, the medical devices used are categorised as infectious or potentially contaminated waste, which makes them difficult to recycle. The increasing scarcity of raw materials is also problematic. This is why technologies and reprocessing methods will be needed in the future to extend the life cycle of medical devices. There are already many different approaches in this area: these include, for example, the use of plastic recyclates, which can be used to produce waste containers for medical facilities, or recycling systems for valuable materials.

In order to be able to reliably identify these and other solutions, Fraunhofer IWU has been working on waste disposal in hospitals as part of an internal project. To this end, surveys were carried out at various hospitals in Saxony, from which the potentials in the life cycles of medical products from different manufacturers were identified. Based on these analyses, the IWU derived ideas from production to final disposal. However, there is still a need for further research in this area. In addition, the ideas and solutions set out in the white paper are partially restricted by current regulations and guidelines.

Industry news from "abfallmanager-medizin.de" from 13 October 2023