Sustainability Stakeholders Sound Off: Highlighting Challenges and Opportunities in Healthcare Packaging

Enhancing the sustainability of plastics in the healthcare industry presents unique challenges. Medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biotech products, and life science applications all face time, material, and regulatory restraints that can hinder sustainability efforts.

For example, the inability to use post-consumer recycled (PCR) content for applications with sterile barrier systems (SBS) is a significant hurdle. As is the general headache of tech and device development, it is a long process that requires us to be both proactive and patient, which isn’t easy to do.

Plastic Ingenuity has spent some time interviewing key stakeholders in retail, healthcare, and consumer packaged goods organizations to glean key insights into their sustainability goals, drivers, and strategies to help find solutions to their biggest roadblocks.

A close examination of these findings from stakeholders working in healthcare packaging, in particular, has identified some consistent, high-priority goals that will help shape sustainable healthcare packaging development going forward.

Insiders Speak Out

As shown in Figure 1, the top sustainability goal, identified by 100% of healthcare stakeholders in 2024, was to “minimize plastic material,” including 75% who have made it their top pick, or highest priority.

Additionally, 100% of respondents said “using recyclable materials” is a goal they are working toward, emphasizing its paramount importance to this industry.

Healthcare stakeholders are also focused on implementing life cycle assessment principles into their development processes to quantify the embodied carbon of their products and minimize environmental impact throughout the entire lifecycle.

Package Design with Circularity in Mind

The good news for these stakeholders is that minimizing plastic material not only helps reduce the environmental impact of packaging but also lowers packaging component costs. “We can create real value for the company through environmental sustainability,” said a healthcare packaging leader surveyed in the study.

The former preference in overengineering packaging in the healthcare industry to eliminate risk now presents clear opportunities for material reduction that can lead to cost savings, without affecting package integrity or patient safety. Organizations like Health Care Without Harm U.S. & Canada are working with healthcare facilities and manufacturers to reduce plastic in products and packaging.

With 100% of surveyed organizations saying they are striving to make packaging from recyclable materials, we recommend following the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC) “Design Guidance for Healthcare Plastics Recycling” resource that is available free of charge to anyone in the industry. It features actionable steps packaging manufacturers can incorporate into production to help meet current or expected regulations and make recycling and other sustainability goals easier to achieve. Switching sterile barrier trays from PETG (polyethylene terephthalate glycol) to healthcare-grade PET is a common goal, for instance, which would offer improved recyclability and potential cost savings.

However, an increase in recyclable healthcare plastics means that the current limited recycling capacity within many healthcare facilities will have to be addressed. There are good signs that this is an area poised for improvement, such as HPRC’s partnership with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste and the Houston Methodist Hospital System to divert single-use plastics from landfills or incineration in the greater Houston area.

Decarbonization Across Supply Chains

A preponderance of survey responders is interested in employing product carbon footprints (PCF) to quantify the embodied carbon of packaging components and use that as a baseline to help develop sustainability improvement plans.

This is leading to closer scrutiny of the entire supply chain, with many organizations making progress on their Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (indirect) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But, as one stakeholder responded, “decarbonization is a shared opportunity,” with every step in the chain affecting those up and downstream. Scope 3 emissions (those incurred indirectly from transportation, distribution, end-of-life treatment, and many more) are also being addressed, as they all contribute to the total carbon footprint of the product.

Another 25% of stakeholders are even prioritizing “closed loop recycling,” or “take-back programs,” an often logistically complex form of circular recycling where increased emissions and labor costs from transportation need to be accounted for. It does significantly reduce waste, however, as reclaimed materials recovered from the packaging are reused directly and are often returned from facilities that lack access to traditional recycling pathways.

Mechanically recycled PCR content has limited use in certain healthcare applications as it can’t be utilized in sterile barrier systems, but may be used in secondary and tertiary packaging. Advanced recycling technologies and certified mass balance systems are also making use of PCR in healthcare applications more feasible. “Using recycled materials allows us to reduce our virgin material consumption and reduce our carbon footprint significantly,” noted a survey respondent.

Policy & Planning

Know that solutions are in the works for many of the barriers faced by manufacturers of medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biotech products, and life science applications. For starters, healthcare plastics must be designed so they are easier to recycle if rates are to improve. Mono materials, compatible plastic types in multi-layer structures, and labeling can all be employed to make the complicated process of material sorting easier.

Legislation also plays a crucial role in driving change. However, recycling standards differ greatly across geographies, muddying the waters. Better communication should be encouraged between regulatory bodies, policymakers, and the healthcare industry to help understand guidelines and thus improve recovery rates.

Contact-sensitive products like medical devices and pharmaceuticals may be exempt for now from recent policies like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation in the U.S. or the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, but secondary packaging items are not exempt.

These regulations will be reevaluated in the coming years, and expectations for the sustainability of healthcare plastics will certainly change. It’s wise for healthcare organizations to plan for the disruptions to come.