Regional Healthcare Plastics Recycling Pilot Planned for Greater Houston Area

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / April 29, 2024 / The Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council and Alliance to End Plastic Waste are partnering with Methodist Hospital in effort to demonstrate cross value chain collaboration and divert single-use plastics from landfill or incineration.

The Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC), a private, technical coalition of industry peers across manufacturing, healthcare, and recycling industries seeking to improve recyclability of plastic products ​within healthcare, has entered into partnership with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), a global nonprofit with the mission to end plastic waste in the environment and to advance a circular economy for plastics, to jointly establish a healthcare plastics recycling program in the Houston area, starting with select hospitals within the Houston Methodist network.

The objective of the pilot is to create a program model that demonstrates effective collaboration across the plastics value chain and establishes responsible plastic recycling practices within a geographical network of hospitals with the end goal of serving as a blueprint for other regions. More specifically, the pilot will seek to:

• Establish collection pilots in hospitals in the Greater Houston area;
• Identify logistics partners to collect and transport waste;
• Identify sortation needs and partners for feedstock preparation; and
• Leverage existing end markets and new markets for material.

The pilot is expected to begin Summer 2024.

"Our experience has shown that there are cost-prohibitive challenges to recycling plastics from individual healthcare facilities," said Peylina Chu, Executive Director of HPRC. "Small quantities, sorting requirements, availability of logistics providers and end-market demand for recycled material, can undermine even the most sustainability-minded hospitals from implementing a healthcare plastics recycling program. Through this pilot work in Houston, we want to take the expertise of HPRC in setting up plastic collection programs at hospitals and combine it with the expertise of AEPW in reverse logistics and working with end processors. Together, with Houston Methodist, we hope to develop a replicable playbook for how other regions can implement economically viable and self-sustaining healthcare plastic recycling programs that achieve meaningful diversion rates and support circularity of these materials."