PPE-mSUP Project

PPE Circular Economy

A linear economy holds no sustainable value for health care. Health care’s participation in a circular economy (CE), however, would provide a major opportunity to yield direct benefits to the sustainability and efficiency of the delivery of health care services and indirect benefits from reducing harmful environmental impacts of hospital-generated waste (WHO, 2018).

Redesign

Redesigning PPE is key to prolonging the lifecycle, thereby optimizing the product and enabling product circularity. Listed below are some key points to consider:

- Optimize products through a redesign, enabling product circularity

- Use high-quality materials to enable reuse

- Use recycled material in the redesign of products

Production

The circular economy encourages the development of a resilient and strategic supply chain, that can aid in manufacturing durable and innovative PPE and mSUP products.

Distribution

Distribution plays a key role in the availability of PPE and mSUPs in the market. The following examples demonstrate how health care facilities can work with suppliers to encourage a CE approach:

- Opportunity to Work with Local Suppliers

- Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

- Sharing Platforms

- Product as a Service

- Adopting a Performance Model in Procurement

- Purchasing Policies

Consumption

Consumption drives production and distribution. Therefore, a reduction in consumption of new products is of paramount importance to drive the re-usage of PPE.

Reuse/Share/Repair

Carrying over from the design component, reusability and repairability of PPE can play a key role in prolonging the product lifecycle. Listed below are some aspects to consider:

- Products that can be reused more than one time through cleaning and sterilization techniques

- Substituting cleaning agents which can be generated onsite (aqueous ozone), decreasing the need to continually buy new products

- Ultra-violate disinfection versus toxic chemical usage

- Establishment of online asset sharing platforms between hospitals or health authorities

- Create local supply chains

- Design equipment to be easily reparable

Recycle

Recycling is the next step in the circular economy after reusing/repairing. It is important to note that recycling is not the "go-to" solution in a circular economy as the focus is more on prolonging product lifecycle through reuse, repair and reprocessing. Listed below are some of the things to keep in mind before recycling PPE:

- Ensure highly efficient sorting and recycling system are in place

- Only recycle products at the end of their life cycle

- Recycle products that cannot be reused due to outstanding circumstances

Engaging health sector and stakeholder experts on PPE and medical SUPs reuse and recycling
Determining PPE and medical SUPs purchased in hospitals and opportunities for reduction, reuse and recycling
Designing the scenarios for the demonstration sites to collect and recycle PPE
Testing the prototype design at the demonstration site
Knowledge generation and translation deliverables will be provided in English and French and will be designed to enable the hospital sector across Canada to develop their own PPE/SUPs collection and recycling programs following the completion of this project.