Goal #3 – Good Health and Well-being
Many of the health-related problems globally depend solely or in part on solutions such as medical devices and products made from plastics.
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These products are of utmost importance for good health and wellbeing: pacemakers; barrier plastics such as condoms; blood bags and tubing for the collection, transport and transfusion of blood; medical tubing for drug administration, drainage and surgery; stents and implants for surgical applications and life extension; medicine containers providing controlled dosages such as inhalers.
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Without plastic products the current standard of healthcare and wellbeing would not be possible. Moreover, progress towards most of the targets under goal three are not attainable without medical devices and products made from plastics.
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Medical plastics are traditionally single use to reduce cross-contamination and the spread of disease. Reducing the amount of waste through effective sterilisation processes whilst still preserving the benefits of plastics is a challenge for the industry.
RecoMed Collection Scheme For Medical Waste
The British Plastics Federation and Axion Consulting have developed a collection scheme for PVC medical waste.
RecoMed is a PVC take-back scheme currently being implemented at 36 different NHS hospitals across Britain (as of November 2019).The scheme involves the collection of used PVC medical devices including nasal cannulas, oxygen tubes, anaesthetic masks and oxygen masks. With around 1500 hospitals in the UK, estimates put the total tonnage of PVC waste at over 2,000 tonnes per annum - a potential avenue for significant cost savings for the NHS and a driver for the circular economy.
RecoMed has collected over 21 tonnes of PVC medical waste since its inception, this is equivalent to over 713,000 mask and tube sets![1]
