Reduce single-use

Reuse of healthcare materials through sustainable disinfection

With the project 'Reduce single-use: reuse of care materials through sustainable disinfection', UZ Gent, Miele Professional and Ghent University are investigating which materials are eligible for reuse with an automatic washer disinfector and how this can be organized practically.

In recent years, care institutions have increasingly used disposable medical materials, because of their ease of use, patient safety and low cost per item. As a result, the daily operation of healthcare facilities requires many raw materials and increases waste production. In order to replace these single-use materials with reusable alternatives, healthcare facilities need to identify which materials are eligible and how to organize that reuse while meeting requirements such as patient safety.
The partners of the project "Reduce single-use: reuse of healthcare materials through sustainable disinfection" are investigating for which single-use materials a reusable alternative exists and how these materials can effectively be made reusable. This will be done with an automatic laundry disinfector located on the nursing units. During this project, the environmental impact of automatic disinfection will be compared to manual disinfection with wipes and/or spray.
This proof of principle project aims to demonstrate that reuse of healthcare materials is practically feasible in the day-to-day operation of healthcare facilities.