Healthcare plastic waste: characterization and possible recycling strategies

Healthcare plastic waste volumes are continuously increasing and represent a relevant environmental problem, since they’re typically incinerated. In order to evaluate the best end of life solutions, that need to be non-threatening to both humans and the environment, it’s important to identify and sort each waste streams. The aim of this work was to analyse and characterize some plastic items coming from a clinical laboratory in Padova as well as giving an overview of recent developments in both disposal and recycling strategies for medical plastic waste. FT-IR spectroscopy and DSC analyses were conducted in order to understand which are the polymers used in the laboratory items (PP, HDPE, LDPE, PS, ecc.). Bibliographic research was employed in order to investigate potential improvements to the actual disposal practise and innovative recycling route.