VinylPlus Med accelerates sustainability in healthcare

VinylPlus has unveiled a new collaborative project called VinylPlus Med that aims to accelerate sustainability in healthcare across Europe through the recycling of discarded single-use PVC medical devices.

Adequate sorting and recycling of non-infectious plastic waste can significantly reduce the environmental impact of hospitals and their operational costs.

PVC is the most common plastic used in life-saving disposable medical devices, including oxygen and anaesthetic masks, tubing, IV and dialysis bags. Many of these single-use devices can be recycled. VinylPlus Med is therefore developing a recycling scheme for single-use PVC medical devices in Belgium to help hospitals sort their PVC medical waste stream. The scheme will focus on clean and REACH-compliant PVC waste that can be recycled into a wide range of value products marketed across Europe. 

Brigitte Dero, Managing Director of VinylPlus, said: “Starting with a pilot project in Belgium, we are excited to make medical plastics more circular together with our partners.”

The high-quality PVC waste of three dialysis facilities will be collected from Europe Hospitals and recycled. The project will also partner with Renewi as the waste manager and Raff Plastics as the recycler. All Belgian VinylPlus Med partners are located within a radius of 120km, to minimise transport distances and thus mitigate carbon footprint.

COVID-19 has highlighted the crucial role played by single-use plastic medical devices in the prevention and control of infection in hospitals. The surge in the need of such disposable items has shed light on the challenges of properly managing and discarding them after use. 

Evelyn Vass, Operational Director at Europe Hospitals, added: “Our single-use plastic medical devices that we use everyday should be recycled. Our staff is motivated to enhance the sustainability performance of our healthcare facilities.  We all believe that it is our responsibility to save money as well as preserve resources and the environment.”