Medical plastic waste recyclability potential analysis for the implementation of circular economy: Adama Hospital Medical College, Ethiopia

Abstract This study aimed to identify the sources, types, and volumes of medical plastic waste generated at Adama Hospital Medical College and to evaluate its recyclability potential during the 2022–2023 period. Accordingly, 19 plastic items were identified, categorized into 6 classes based on their application and contamination. Mass of identified product was multiplied by the number of the consumed product to determine total consumption. Annual plastic product consumption was calculated for each product and analyzed in terms of polymer composition of the plastic products. Accordingly, 38 tons of medical plastic products were consumed directly from hospital stock while 9.5 tons of plastic medical supplies were brought into the hospital by patients annually. Personal protective equipment ranked first and accounted for 52% of the total medical plastic consumption, followed by IV infusion sets (26%), syringes (15.5%), and tubing’s (4.6%). Composition assessment revealed that, latex ranked first (49.8%) and followed by polyvinyl chloride (30.1%) and polypropylene (16.3%). At the time of the study, the hospital had based on 200 active beds with 92.9% occupancy rate and waste generation rate of 1.23 kg/bed/day. The recyclability potential analysis revealed that IV solution bags ranked first followed by disposable syringes, oxygen masks and nasal oxygen catheters as products with the highest potential and overall representing 31.2% of the medical products consumed in the hospital. Proper source segregation, development of a recycling infrastructure, raising the awareness of hospital staff should be considered in order to increase the recycling potential of medical plastic wastes.