How to balance sustainability and patient safety

Gertrud Masure, EMEAF market development manager and Abigail Agentis, Americas market developer at ExxonMobil, explain the importance of patient safety when it comes to being sustainable. 

Sustainability is at the forefront of multiple industries, however when we think of sustainability, we think of recycling and the reusing of products, but in the medical industry it’s not always so simple.  

For the most part, it’s safe to reuse or recycle a product, such as packaging, but what happens when it comes to syringes and face masks? This is where hygiene and patient safety become a huge factor. Exxonmobil believe that patient safety is a form of sustainability in itself. 

Patient safety 

Exxonmobil aim to look at different solutions to try and find ways to keep patients safe whilst being as sustainable as possible. 

Abigail Agentis, Americas market development manager, said: “We definitely recognise that sustainability is a key driver across all industries and not just medical. And so that's definitely at the forefront of our minds when we're looking at developing solutions for this industry. I would say that we have, within our expanded portfolio, a lot of great new alternatives to existing incumbent materials that could be leveraged towards companies’ sustainability goals.” 

Gertrud Masure, EMEAF market development manager, added: “It’s about how can we change and look at different solutions that are important for a patient's safety? And to me, that's part of the sustainability story in the same sense as well. It's like, how can we provide better healthcare in the longer term for patients, for the safety of everyone.” 

How can this be solved? 

So how can we recycle medical plastics without risking harm to patients? Exxonmobil has developed a technology, called Exxtend, which breaks waste and rebuilds the material, allowing plastic waste to be converted into brand new products. 

“The medical industry is also looking at recycling opportunities. Now, of course there is a whole patient safety related to it, so one of the things we are studying and looking into is how our Exxtend technology for advanced recycling of plastic waste to produce certified-circular polymers can potentially play a role in the medical field.” Masure said.  

“What the technology basically does is it takes mixed plastic waste, breaks it down to its molecular building blocks and rebuilds polymers using existing petrochemical facilities. This results in virgin equivalent, high performance polymers that can comply with the industry’s highest requirements on cleanliness, purity and product safety.” 

The finishing touch 

Exxonmobil has created a large-scale facility in Baytown to process plastic waste.  

As of June 2022, the company had processed more than 5,000 metric tonnes of waste. Upon completion, Exxonmobil states it’s now among North America’s largest advanced plastic waste recycling facilities, with a goal to recycle 30,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste each year. 

Exxtend can be rapidly scaled to process a wide range of plastic waste. The company aims to have the advanced recycling capacity of up to 500,000 metric tonnes per year by the end of 2026, globally.