Circular Economy in the Healthcare Sector

The healthcare sector is a sector in which the type of activities carried out, the treatments, the technologies used, the workspaces, the types of materials purchased and the way of consuming, among others, have changed significantly in the last years. All this has an impact on the waste that is generated and the needs to manage it. A clear example has been the introduction of digital diagnostic imaging, which has eliminated certain waste from healthcare centres, or the use of new devices which, on the other hand, generate new waste with electronic components.

According to information from the Public Health Agency of Catalonia [1], the health network in the region generates more than 96 tonnes of hospital waste every day, half of which is healthcare waste, the other half being assimilable to what can be generated in other service activities. Data available at national level, shows that 22.000 tones of Healthcare and biological waste has been generated in Spain in 2017 [2]. In terms of infectious waste generation rate at EU level, it was around 1,6 kilograms per bed per day in 2013. However, this figure varies depending on local context (between 0,13 and 5,07 kg/bed/night [3]).

If the health sector succeeds in making its processes and services more circular, this can have a major impact on society, given that its activity is visible to the public and constitutes an environment with which the public regularly interacts.

Considering this context and the proactivity of some Catalan healthcare centres, many of which are EMAS-registered, a circular environmental management project has been launched in October 2023 with a specific focus on waste prevention and management and the optimisation of materials.

The project, developed by the EMAS Club, has obtained the support of the Waste Agency of Catalonia and involves identifying the main challenges and opportunities and carrying out a sectoral study - that will be finished by February 2025 - to shed light on how to overcome the barriers to making the sector a more circular activity; at the same time, the needs to update the current waste regulations, which in Catalonia date back to 1999, will be detected.

The project will set up a Regional Working Table on February 13^th in which, in addition to the healthcare centres, it is planned to open up participation to various stakeholders such as waste and public health administrations, waste contractors, suppliers to the sector, representatives of the sector's professionals and logistics platforms, among others.

Throughout the project there will be four online meetings with organisations from other countries in order to exchange information, experience and knowledge.If you are interested in getting more information about the project and sharing some of your good practices, please contact infoclubemas [dot] cat (info[at]clubemas[dot]cat).

We look forward to hearing from you!

[1] https://salutpublica.gencat.cat/ca/ambits/proteccio_salut/residus_sanitaris/

[2] Statista Research Department 25/8/2021

[3] Information obtained on the basis of Eurostat 2013 data quoted in the presentation “Healthcare waste in the EU - a short overview “by Mr. Pawel Gluszyński from the Polish Zero Waste Association.