A concept for waste reduction and more sustainable medical device design

Abstract

In recent years, the amount of medical waste has increased dramatically due to the massive change to single-use devices. Nowadays, a new type of healthcare waste is spreading: single-use electronic devices. Several of these devices are contaminated after use, and the standard treatment is thermal recycling. But in times of material shortages and rising environmental challenges, new solutions for this problem have to be discussed. In this paper, we introduce a concept to transform this contaminated waste into an attractive business of reuse and recycling.