Sustainable solutions for respiratory and airway biomedical devices

Abstract

The detrimental impact human activity has on the environment is undeniable with unsustainable practices and consumerist mentality of great concern. Due to the precautionary nature around the safety of medical equipment, the medical industry has been one of the slowest to incorporate sustainability into their design considerations. The research in this field is scarce thus requiring extensive communication between numerous stakeholders to ensure the proposed solutions are attainable across the entirety of the products’ life cycles. This PhD project aims to generate evidence for improving sustainability, in particularly environmental aspects, of medical devices and practices using a life cycle approach incorporating the views of key stakeholders. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and Life cycle costing (LCC) methodologies are used to assess respiratory and airway devices following ISO standards 14040/44:2006. Evaluation of environmental impacts from each life cycle stage are provided to identify improvement opportunities. Mechanical testing is also used to explore the mechanical properties of an environmentally sustainable alternative to polypropylene; calcium carbonate filled polypropylene composites. Diverse scenarios were explored throughout, including: investigation of more environmentally sustainable materials as alternatives to currently used medical polymers (Chapters 4, 5, and 6); the potential to use disinfection to allow for reusing and/or recycling of plastic medical devices (Chapters 6 and 7); the environmental and economic impact of reusable versus single-use devices (Chapter 7), and qualitative exploration of barriers faced when segregating and recycling used devices (Chapter 8). It is shown that environmental and economic impacts can be reduced by using alternative materials such as reducing the use of phthalate-based plasticisers, replacing polyvinyl chloride with thermoplastic elastomer, and using calcium carbonate filled polypropylene. To reduce the environmental impact of the end-of-life stage, respiratory devices can be reused but the electricity demands during reprocessing requires reduction before being environmentally and economically favourable to single-use devices. Some environmental impacts can be reduced by disinfecting and recycling breathing systems instead of incinerating. The volume of incinerated medical waste can be reduced significantly by addressing poor waste segregation within hospitals by providing additional training and increasing availability of various coloured waste streams.