Research: IPDr impacting material recovery in the healthcare sector
Research Team
LEAD INVESTIGATORS
Associate Professor Berto Pandolfo
School of Design Faculty of Design Architecture & Building University of Technology Sydney
Dr Miles Park
School of Built Environment Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture University of New South Wales
CO-INVESTIGATORS
Associate Professor Stefan Lie
School of Design Faculty of Design Architecture & Building University of Technology Sydney
Mr Roderick Walden
School of Design Faculty of Design Architecture & Building University of Technology Sydney
Mr Anton Nemme
School of Design Faculty of Design Architecture & Building University of Technology Sydney
Professor Damien Giurco
Institute for Sustainable Futures University of Technology Sydney
Adjunct Professor John Gertsakis
Product Stewardship Centre for Excellence
Associate Professor Mariano Ramirez
School of Built Environment Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture University of New South Wales
Hospital staff demonstrating their NWPP usage and disposal in an operating theatre.
Snapshot of clinical and non-clinical products included in the product inventory review.
Internal ideation workshop at UTS.
Stakeholder codesign workshop at Bankstown- Lidcombe Hospital.
Trial using custom-made NWPP bin liner.
Sterimelt machine at Bankstown- Lidcombe Hospital.
Recycled NWPP briquette resulting from the Sterimelt process. Photography by Finn Marchant.
Recycled NWPP briquette broken into coarse fragments and shredded into granular particles.. Photography by Finn Marchant.
Coaster produced by low-pressure injection moulding of Sterimelt-recycled NWPP.
Deep tray produced by high-pressure injection moulding of Sterimelt-recycled NWPP. Photography by Finn Marchant.
The project demonstrated the feasibility of implementing a circular economy approach to NWPP waste management in hospitals. Through a structured design-led process – spanning discovery, ideation, prototyping, evaluation, and implementation planning – this study has identified key opportunities and challenges in shifting from waste disposal to material recovery within hospital settings.
Hospitals generate substantial amounts of waste, with public health services in New South Wales (NSW) alone producing approximately 52,400 tonnes annually. A significant proportion of this waste consists of single-use plastics, particularly NWPP, a material widely used in sterilisation wraps, surgical drapes, disposable gowns, and face masks.
Healthcare plastic waste falls into several broad categories:
Clean, uncontaminated plastics, such as sterile packaging and unused NWPP disposables, which could be recycled if adequately sorted.
Potentially contaminated plastics, including gloves, IV bags, and tubing, which often require incineration or specialised treatment.
Mixed-material plastics, such as composite packaging and multi-layered materials, which are challenging to recycle due to their complex structure.
Although NWPP is technically recyclable, it is rarely recovered. The primary barriers include contamination risks, limited recycling infrastructure, and regulatory constraints. As a result, most NWPP waste is either incinerated or sent to landfill, contributing to environmental harm, greenhouse gas emissions, and high disposal costs for hospitals.
Globally, only around 9% of plastic waste gets recycled. A key challenge in hospital settings is that existing hospital waste management systems prioritise infection control and disposal over material recovery. Even clean, unused NWPP waste is often treated as clinical waste, leading to unnecessary incineration and lost recycling opportunities.
Furthermore, the lack of standardised waste segregation processes make it difficult to separate recyclable plastics from general and biohazardous waste streams.
The Achieving Circularity project was established to explore practical and scalable solutions for recovering and recycling NWPP waste within hospitals. The project applies circular economy principles to reduce plastic waste, lower disposal costs, and reintroduce recycled hospital plastics into useful applications. By trialling Sterimelt thermal compaction technology, engaging directly with hospital staff and industry experts, and evaluating real-world feasibility, the project demonstrates how NWPP waste can be processed on-site and potentially reintegrated into hospital supply chains.
Beyond developing new recycling methods, the project also examines the operational feasibility of hospital plastics recovery. Through collaboration with healthcare providers, manufacturers, and waste management specialists, it identifies the barriers, opportunities, and best practices for making hospital plastic waste recovery both scalable and sustainable. The broader vision is to close the loop within hospitals by transforming recovered NWPP into useful non-clinical items – such as office products, trays, bowls, cups, or even the same bins used for NWPP segregation – ensuring that hospital-generated plastics remain within the healthcare system in a different form, rather than becoming waste.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
Guiding the Achieving Circularity project were four key objectives, aiming to:
Develop and pilot an NWPP recycling model for hospitals: Systematically recover, segregate, process, and reintegrate non-woven polypropylene (NWPP) waste within hospital supply chains.
Trial innovative NWPP recycling technologies in hospitals: Validate the feasibility and effectiveness of on-site NWPP processing technologies, such as Sterimelt thermal compaction, focusing on waste volume reduction and integration into existing hospital waste systems.
Investigate material transformation pathways for recycled NWPP: Assess the physical properties, manufacturing potential, and product applications of hospital-derived recycled polypropylene to explore how it can be reintroduced into the healthcare sector.
Co-design practical solutions with hospitals and industry: Engage healthcare staff, waste management teams, and industry partners in a collaborative design process to improve waste segregation, collection, and recycling practices, ensuring that solutions are scalable, cost-effective, and aligned with real-world hospital operations.
By applying these objectives, the project aims to demonstrate a scalable approach that could be replicated across multiple hospital networks, supporting a broader transition toward circular plastics use in healthcare.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
Hospitals generate large volumes of single-use plastics, much of which is wrongly classified as hazardous waste and sent for costly incineration or landfill. A major challenge is the misconception that all medical plastics are contaminated, preventing their recovery and recycling. The disposal of NWPP and other hospital plastics presents several critical challenges:
High financial costs. Hospitals incur significant waste disposal expenses, particularly for clinical waste. Disposal methods such as incineration and autoclaving are cost-intensive, and many hospitals unnecessarily classify recyclable plastics as hazardous waste, further increasing costs.
Carbon emissions from incineration. The burning of plastics, including NWPP, releases greenhouse gases and toxic pollutants, contributing to climate change and air pollution. Incineration also destroys valuable materials that could otherwise be recovered, repurposed or recycled.
Landfill dependence and long-term pollution. A significant proportion of hospital plastics ends up in landfills, where they contribute to microplastic pollution and resource depletion. Given that plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade, this practice poses long-term environmental risks.
Missed material recovery opportunities. NWPP and other hospital plastics are valuable raw materials that could be recycled into new medical products or alternative applications. However, without proper segregation and processing systems, hospitals continue to discard high-quality polypropylene waste, increasing reliance on virgin plastics
Misalignment with global sustainability commitments. Governments and industries worldwide are moving toward circular economy models, aiming to reduce plastic waste and improve resource efficiency. Hospitals, however, have made limited progress in NWPP recovery, even though it is one of the most widely used plastics in the healthcare sector. This project seeks to address this gap by demonstrating scalable, sustainable recycling pathways for NWPP waste.
THE NEED FOR A CIRCULAR ECONOMY APPROACH IN HOSPITALS
Efforts to reduce hospital plastic waste have largely focused on PVC recycling, which has been successfully implemented in over 300 Australian hospitals [21]. However, NWPP recycling remains largely unexplored, despite its high volume of use and technical recyclability.
By shifting toward a circular economy approach, hospitals can:
Recover valuable materials. Instead of disposing of NWPP, hospitals can recycle and reintegrate it into their supply chains.
Reduce environmental impact. By minimising landfill waste and incineration emissions, hospitals contribute to sustainability targets.
Lower waste management costs. Recycling reduces the financial burden of waste disposal.
Foster industry collaboration. A closed-loop hospital recycling system requires partnerships between healthcare providers, manufacturers, and policymakers.
THE ROLE OF THE ACHIEVING CIRCULARITY PROJECT
The Achieving Circularity project seeks to bridge the gap between hospital plastic waste generation and practical recycling solutions. By engaging healthcare professionals, industry partners, and policymakers, the project demonstrates viable, cost-effective strategies for integrating NWPP recycling into hospital waste management systems.
This initiative does not only address plastic waste challenges; it paves the way for Australian hospitals to transition toward a sustainable, circular plastics economy, ensuring that the healthcare sector contributes to global sustainability goals while maintaining the highest standards of hygiene and patient safety.
