Brightmark launches medical waste recycling program with Jamar Health products

Brightmark, a global waste solutions provider based in San Francisco, and Jamar Health Products, a Wisconsin-based health care product manufacturer, have announced a strategic partnership to recycle plastic medical waste.  

Brightmark says it provides a sustainable and circular solution for chemically recycling and converting Jamar’s proprietary Patran slide sheets, made of low-density polyethylene and high-density polyethylene, into low-carbon fuels and the building blocks for circular plastics.  

Brightmark's process uses a form of pyrolysis. Incoming plastics are shredded, dried and pelletized. The resulting pellets are placed in heated stainless steel vessels, known as plastic conversion units (PCUs). The vapor produced in the heating process is captured and cooled, creating fuels and the building blocks for future plastic products.

Jamar says it created Patran slide sheets for lateral transfer 40 years ago. Starting with the original disposable slide sheet, the company sells a variety of sizes and styles of single-patient, multiple-use slide sheets for safe patient-handling and mobility (SPHM) tasks, including boosting patients in bed when they start to slump down. As health care facilities nationwide started using Patran slide sheets, caregivers, including nurses, physical and occupational therapists and SPHM coordinators, started getting creative and found more than 25 ways to use Patran slide sheets for SPHM tasks by hospitals, surgery centers, long-term care facilities, EMS and other health care operations, the company says.  

“The global health care plastic market produces over 14.5 billion pounds of plastics a year,” says Bob Powell, CEO of Brightmark. “Health care is a market that will likely continue to grow over 5 percent per year. We’re with Jamar to help reuse and solve the plastics that come out of their slide sheets.”