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Pilot project with Johnson & Johnson

Over 2,800 disposable instruments collected from operating theatres and recycled

In a pilot project in cooperation with the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, over 2,800 disposable instruments were collected from the operating theatres of the Lindenhofspital in Bern between July and October 2021 and then recycled in a professional and environmentally friendly manner by SENS eRecycling.

Disposable medical instruments are intended for single use and are then disposed of. They thereby consume a lot of resources – both in production and conventional disposal. The aim of the recycling project was therefore to recover as many recyclable materials as possible from disposable medical instruments and to return them to the material cycle following their single use. After all, the disposable instruments are made of high-quality plastics and metals such as steel, titanium, aluminium and chrome steel.

As part of the project, which lasted several months, disposable instruments were tested in the context of sustainability and recycling aspects. This test has uncovered that, depending on the instrument, a recycling quota of 74 to 100 per cent can be achieved.

The 2,800 disposable medical instruments collected went through a strictly controlled cleaning and recycling process. The collection proved to be worthwhile despite this effort. From the approximately 310 kilograms of material collected, 87 kilograms of metals such as steel, titanium, aluminium, copper and chrome steel as well as 220 kilograms of plastic were recovered.