Growing opportunities for messy materials

Manufacturers of medical tools and devices primarily focus on making products that are safe and sterile. Recycling those materials at the end of their lives usually is not a top priority, and much of it becomes medical waste after use in hospitals and other health care facilities.

According to a 2021 report from Houston-based Sharps Compliance Inc., each staffed hospital bed produces about 33 pounds of medical waste each day, and U.S. hospitals produce more than 5.9 million tons of medical waste per year, not including medical waste from medical, dental, veterinary, pharmacy, home care and other small-quantity generators in the U.S.

Although these materials aren’t designed to be recycled, Scott Melton, president of Flint, Michigan-based ACI Plastics, says a great deal of medical waste has recyclable attributes.

“You look at a syringe—the needle, plunger rod and syringe body are all recyclable,” Melton says. “The rubber stopper, we don’t have a home for yet, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.”

ACI Plastics has had success recycling postindustrial medical scrap through its partnership with Rutland, Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems. Through the partnership, Casella collects postindustrial scrap from four Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD) plants in Nebraska before that material is delivered to ACI Plastics’ facility in Columbus, Nebraska, where it is recycled. ACI receives about 10 truckloads of postindustrial medical scrap per day from those four BD plants.

Melton says he’s bullish on the concept of finding solutions to recycle postconsumer medical scrap.

“It’s a market that’s untouched right now,” he says.

RELATED: Casella, BD study recycling options for discarded syringes

“We realized that we needed to really kind of put a laser focus on this because not only is there so much volume coming in from postindustrial, but what’s the potential for [postconsumer]?” says Elaine Wagener, director of healthcare solutions at Casella Waste Systems, adding that the same material types that comprise postindustrial scrap are found in postconsumer scrap. “There [are] complications with [postconsumer material], but it’s the same material.”

For the past year, ACI and Casella have tested whether they can recycle postconsumer medical scrap through a similar series of partnerships. Through the trial, BD is sending postconsumer medical scrap from hospitals and other medical offices to Casella and the material is sterilized prior to recycling. Casella then sends the decontaminated materials to ACI Plastics to recycle and recover polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE).

Melton says ACI is still testing this process but, he adds, once finalized, the goal is for BD to purchase the PP and HDPE to use in new medical devices.

“Sending the finished pellet to BD for reuse hasn’t been approved yet,” he says. “We continue doing more testing. I believe BD is very focused on making this process of recycling [postconsumer] medical waste a success and be the leader in the industry. It’s a big step to get to that point where we get BD saying we want to do this.”

Wagener adds that high levels of contamination have made it difficult for recyclers and manufacturers to find a solution to close the loop for postconsumer medical waste.

“What’s collected at a hospital is not nicely sorted,” she says. “Here’s a syringe, a glass vial, etc. Everything is shoved into a box to be as safe as possible for hospital employees, and then it’s taken away. It really is some of the messiest material we’re seeing, and that’s saying a lot.”

Wagener adds that if the trial with ACI Plastics is successful, there are likely “endless opportunities” for recycling medical waste.

“One of our core values is continuous improvement and innovation," she says. "We [operate] landfills, and we think there are things that should be thrown away. But if it doesn’t need to be, why do that?”