Busting the myth: Going green and nuance surrounding “single-use”

Ian Bolland spoke to Anna-Maria Bertasa, global market manager – healthcare, Solvay, about navigating the pandemic and the focus on sustainability in the medical plastics sector.

With a company that is exposed to so many different markets, it’s fair to say that Solvay has probably had something of an up-and-down period during the pandemic.

Many different parts of the economy in several countries suffered as the pandemic took hold and everyone’s habits had to change because of COVID-19.

Companies who develop materials, components and devices for the healthcare setting naturally experienced a spike in demand of certain products at the start of the pandemic, as Anna Maria Bertasa explains.

“At the beginning of the emergency there has been lots of projects we’ve been working on at very fast speed, like trying to help with the emergency. We provided transparent films for the production of face shields and other protective equipment, and we had to face an exponential surge of the demand for a product that is utilised in the production of ventilators, as a lot of customers had to produce, very quickly, a huge number of these devices.”

Solvay’s role in ventilation production involved supplying specific polymers, Radel PPSU and Udel PSU, to customers that expanded the production of their already approved devices so they could get to the front-line more urgently.

Though many would feel that the pandemic would mean a huge spike in demand for healthcare applications, Bertasa mentioned there was a significant decline of consumption in the orthopaedic space, as non-life-threatening procedures were postponed or cancelled to tackle the health emergency, which is being slowly recovered.

After the first emergency wave, another significant trend that Solvay has experienced was the 40-60% growth of the biopharma sector linked to the production and development of vaccines and therapeutics for facing the pandemic challenges. The company currently supplies high performance materials that are used to produce single-use components for biopharmaceutical processing.

Reflecting on the years prior to the pandemic, Bertasa highlights the role and features that thermoplastics have had in medical devices, and the properties that make it stand-out from other materials.

“Since Solvay started supplying polymers into the healthcare market segment, we’ve seen high performance thermoplastics stepping forward from previous materials like metal and glass thanks to a combination of features that enables technology innovations in healthcare.

“Compared to metal, you have lightweight first of all, so an instrument can be much more light and easier to handle for helping the work of healthcare professionals. They have more flexibility in the design, while offering comparable strength and stiffness with metal. On top, they offer features like transparency and colourability that are not possible with metal.

“They still provide the safety that you need in terms of biocompatibility and sterilisation. All in all we could actually see a lot of examples where certain devices have been innovated because of thermoplastics.

“Elasso Surgical Instruments developed a device for tonsil and adenoid removal. The device used to be made by metal, but that company was able to make a complete innovation step so to include new features in the device thanks to thermoplastics. For instance, in the past the device was only cutting tissues now the device can also cauterise the tissues with an electrical connection that can burn the tissues at the same time. The blue colour of one part of the device helps to quickly identify where the electrical connection is located. In addition, lightweight for the doctor and the ergonomic shape of the device itself are additional features that enhance the overall user experience and satisfaction.”

While cost is also a factor, enabling more medical devices to be made cheaply, the properties of certain thermoplastics can also mean they are as a robust as metal devices. Solvay highlighted an example with the Zillion Black surgical instruments in 2019 with the use of its Ixef PARA material.

With sustainability, recycling, and better practices all goals that companies are trying to strive for, plastics have probably been targeted for their single-use devices. While the name might suggest this is an area that provides more waste for the planet, it is in fact more nuanced – especially when you factor in all the aspects that contribute to the overall sustainability assessment of a technology or a device: the type of device that is being used, transportation costs and the amount of energy that is used in the sterilisation of reusable devices are all factors that have to be taken into account, on top of safety considerations about the infection control and flexibility of scheduling last-min surgeries that are allowed by single-use instruments. 

Bertasa explains that case studies have been performed and results published showing that specific examples of single-use surgical devices and single use components of biopharma processing are more sustainable than their respective reusable equipment and sweeping statements about single-use devices can be unhelpful.

As an example, a study by Solvay with Medacta in 2016 indicated a lower carbon footprint for a surgical instrument kit for knee replacements compared to the reusable kits.

“What I can say is for instruments we did that example, and it’s been published and clearly demonstrates it’s not granted that reusable is more sustainable than single-use.

“Every time you have to deal with sterilisation, every time you save cleaning procedures, sterilisation, re-packaging and transportation between the surgery room and the sterilisation unit you actually save a lot of energy and water.”

Sustainability, says Bertasa, is a key part of Solvay’s strategy in the healthcare segment going forward.

“In healthcare it’s probably a little bit behind compared to other segments we are exposed to like consumer goods or construction but definitely I see huge potential for us to be a leader in the future as well in sustainability, helping in partnership with customers in the value chain to improve that aspect as well.”