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The epidemic of COVID-19 in foreign countries is getting more and more serious. Every day new confirmed cases attract everyone's attention, but the concept of circular economy is still moving in all walks of life, and this is also true in the field of healthcare.

For a long time, health care has been excluded from the discussion of the circular economy due to concerns about pollution, but successful pilot projects around the world have shown that used and used materials are recycled without posing risks to patients, staff or recyclers. Medical devices are indeed possible.

All these projects in more than 200 hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Guatemala and the United Kingdom have in common that they only collect medical equipment made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). why? Because PVC is the most widely used plastic in healthcare and can be recycled into a variety of useful products.

In terms of packaging, we have been discussing whether the proportion of PVC is too small to form a recycling program for this polymer. But when it comes to medical equipment, the situation is completely different.

Today, recycling is often hampered because the components of the product are all different. Some products may contain polymers that are difficult to separate, and some contain non-plastic parts or additives. So, what should recycling design look like in the medical device field?

First, medical devices must be made from a single polymer. Otherwise, even if the device has a multi-layer structure in the same polymer, the quality of the recovered material will be affected. Devices made from different polymers are more difficult to recycle due to different processing temperatures.

Paradoxically, the trend for so-called "PVC-free" medical devices often leads to a shift from a single polymer design to multiple layers. Due to the unique properties of PVC-versatility in formulation, impermeability to water vapor, impermeability to oxygen, and medical approvals around the world-PVC is ideal for designing single-layer medical devices.

Ideally, plastic products should be recycled repeatedly. Therefore, it is important to choose a polymer that can be reused multiple times without losing its technical performance or requiring the addition of raw materials.

Several studies have shown that PVC is the ideal material to meet the requirements. The recyclability of PVC is also unparalleled in the polymer world.