It is amazing how quickly priorities change. Medical packaging industry buzz is no different. In 2014, “sustainability,” (while growing in prominence in other sectors) was in its infancy as far as the medical packaging industry was concerned. In 2017, our industry eyes shifted to the ticking clock of enforcement for the new EU MDR. And in 2020, every conversation went silent except for one, everywhere. By 2022 business was back, yet it took time to regroup: just where did we leave off?
The quest for sustainability roared forward more urgently than ever. The volume of medical waste generated during the pandemic was staggering, yet there had been no choice and no time to figure it out—until now, the dawn of a new era in “clean” and “green.”
As we begin Q4 of 2023, opportunities for disruptive innovation in more sustainable medical packaging are increasing in every conversation, from packaging engineers, medical goods makers, and regulators, to politicians, clinicians, and patients. Our industry faces complex, critical challenges. We must meet requirements for patient safety while ending waste, recycling, and shrinking our carbon footprints. Formidable? Yes. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the first step really is hardest one.
This article, Five ways to achieve sustainable medical packaging, from Chemical Abstracts Service, takes the first step for you (and us!). It’s time to regain our momentum and make sustainable medical packaging old news, because we’ll have reached the summit.
