Moving Toward Circular: 5 Key Insights from the HPRC Spring Meeting
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the spring meeting of the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC). Oliver joined as one of the organization’s newest member companies. The agenda covered a wide range of challenges and developments shaping healthcare plastics recycling—from carbon impact strategies to pilot programs and international collaboration.
The meeting brought together stakeholders from across the healthcare value chain—manufacturers, hospitals, recyclers, and sustainability experts—to share progress, identify roadblocks, and align on next steps. It was a valuable session, providing both practical updates and broader strategic context for where the industry is headed.
Below are 5 of my key takeaways that stood out from the discussion:
Carbon Fluency Is Becoming Critical for Industry Stakeholders
The opening keynote from Scott Collick, VP of Sustainability at DuPont, introduced an important concept: carbon fluency. Rather than viewing sustainability purely through the lens of emissions reduction, organizations should consider both their carbon footprint (what they emit) and their carbon handprint (what positive impact their products enable—such as avoided emissions or reduced downstream waste).
This dual perspective encourages companies to think more holistically about their role in decarbonization. In the healthcare sector, where safety and performance standards often necessitate complex, single-use plastics, this framing offers a more balanced way to communicate environmental impact. It was a useful reminder that developing meaningful sustainability metrics—backed by life cycle assessments (LCA)—will be increasingly essential.
Hospitals Need Simpler, More Practical Recycling Solutions
A panel discussion featuring representatives from Houston Methodist, Hackensack Meridian Health, and Medtronic underscored the practical limitations hospitals face in executing sustainable packaging initiatives. One of the clearest themes was that, despite interest and internal goals, many healthcare systems struggle to implement recycling protocols effectively in high-pressure clinical settings—especially in the operating room.
Suggestions from the panel included designing packaging that is universally recyclable, and implementing highly visible, intuitive labeling. While education remains important, panelists emphasized that changes to infrastructure and packaging design will likely yield greater impact than relying solely on training or awareness campaigns.
European Pilot Programs Are Making Headway
HPRC Europe shared details of its ongoing project at Bonn University Hospital in Germany, which is evaluating how best to collect and sort clinical plastics for recycling. The project includes collaboration with TOMRA, a leader in automated sorting technologies. Containers are strategically placed throughout the hospital, and collected materials are transported regularly for processing and analysis.
Manual sorting remains the standard for now, and multilayer packaging continues to present challenges. However, this pilot is generating valuable insights on logistics and material flows that could inform similar efforts elsewhere. An in-person HPRC Europe meeting is being planned for 2025 to further align stakeholders around this work.
Houston Pilot Workgroups Are Building a Scalable Framework
HPRC’s pilot project in Houston—divided into three working groups (WG)—is building momentum. The goal is to create a model for diverting non-hazardous healthcare plastics from landfill to recycling through a coordinated cross-value chain approach.
- WG1, chaired by Eastman and Dow, is focused on hospital operations and is currently drafting a playbook based on trials at Houston Methodist.
- WG2, chaired by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), is managing logistics and sortation, with trials underway and partnerships forming with local facilities.
- WG3, also under AEPW, is evaluating end markets and economic viability for recycled materials, with a survey in development and early modeling complete.
Technology and Innovation May Play a Key Role
A forward-looking presentation by Rey Banatao from Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory highlighted potential paths toward scalable recycling through advanced identification and molecular sorting technologies. The team is exploring how machine learning and material fingerprinting could address one of the sector’s biggest hurdles: the complexity and inconsistency of sorting flexible plastics.
With less than 5% of flexible plastics recycled in the U.S., these approaches offer a route to increasing recovery rates—though the need for clear end markets for recycled materials remains a key barrier. Aligning technology with economic demand will be critical to turning this potential into practice.
Looking Ahead
The meeting also included updates on ongoing efforts such as LCA education for hospitals, sustainable procurement initiatives, and the ASTM E60.42 work item to standardize design guidelines for recyclable single-use medical products. In all, the discussions reflected a balance of realism and ambition: there is growing momentum, but also a recognition that change requires time, coordination, and transparency.
As a new member of HPRC, I appreciated the open exchange of ideas and the shared commitment to progress. There’s clear value in connecting the dots between packaging design, hospital operations, recycling infrastructure, and policy trends. HPRC is well positioned to make meaningful strides in helping healthcare move toward more circular, responsible material use.
To learn more about the council’s work or explore how to get involved, visit www.hprc.org.
