Not surprising, biopharma plastic recycling isn’t as simple as recycling ordinary plastic. In fact, approximately 30,000 tons of biopharma single use plastic products are landfilled or incinerated each year. One of the key reasons for this lack of recyclability is that biopharma plastics often contain a mixture of silicon, polyethylene and polypropylene – materials that are difficult to separate. In addition, purifying these types of plastics has also proven to be very difficult.

Healthcare Plastics Recycling County (HPRC) recently hosted roundtables for hospitals (in conjunction with CleanMed) and recyclers (in conjunction with Re|focus). One of our biggest takeaways has been the barriers created by misconceptions and questions recyclers have about the safety and cleanliness of healthcare plastics.

Nestlé, together with a number of international consumer goods companies, launched the Africa Plastics Recycling Alliance at the CEO Africa Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.

This Alliance aims to turn the current challenge of plastic waste in Sub-Saharan Africa into an opportunity to create jobs and commercial activity by improving the collection and recycling of plastics.

The Africa Plastics Recycling Alliance has been established for companies to:

Our newest HPRC blog features the fascinating Aneta Clark, Global Market Segment Manager for Medical Packaging at Eastman Chemical. Aneta touches briefly on what her company manufactures, the challenges and the future of healthcare plastics.

Read about what Aneta does in her spare time and why she thinks HPRC is a “fantastic platform to learn about varying points of view on challenges we all share in the industry.”

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