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Selecting Lidding for Recyclable Medical Trays

A lid and tray are recyclable—in different waste streams? Why pairing top and bottom webs in the same recycling stream may be more efficient.

A PX medical tray and a 52 pound paper lid are both recyclable, but would require two waste collection containers and processing methods. Alternatively, an HDPE tray with a Tyvek lid would be collected in the same waste receptacle and processed by the recycler in the same waste stream.
A PX medical tray and a 52 pound paper lid are both recyclable, but would require two waste collection containers and processing methods. Alternatively, an HDPE tray with a Tyvek lid would be collected in the same waste receptacle and processed by the recycler in the same waste stream.

The existence of recyclable packaging components does not guarantee that they make it into the proper recycling streams. This is especially the case when the lid and tray of a medical packaging system must be recycled in two different streams.

Kyle Vafiadis, technical service engineer at Tekni-Plex, Inc., discussed challenges and considerations for creating recyclable medical packaging in a demo at PACK EXPO Connects.

Materials

DuPont Tyvek, manufactured from HDPE resin, is a breathable film amenable to many types of sterilization methods. It is recyclable in existing PE medical waste streams, and when mated to a PE medical tray, the entire package can be sent into the same PE recycling stream.

Vafiadis said that while the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC) identifies Tyvek as a material desirable for recycling, mixed waste streams present a collection challenge per an HPRC study:

"DuPont Tyvek was found to be most difficult to collect because it mimics paper and clinicians had to fully separate a Tyvek lid from the bottom container to meet the recycler’s acceptance criteria. The hospital's key takeaway was that an effective clinical program must (1) be simple for clinicians to follow and (2) reduce the sorting burden at the point of collection” (per the from the Chicago Regional Demonstration Project Report presented by HPRC and PLASTICS, December 2016).

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