Recycling End-of-Life Medical Components

Recycling End-of-Life Medical Components New partnership will help customers achieve sustainability targets for high-performance Udel® PSU polymers in demanding applications. Medical equipment manufactured using Solvay's Udel® high-performance polysulfone (PSU) thermoplastic will be recycled at end-of-life under a new sustainability initiative launched by the company with Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials (MCAM). Aligned with Solvay's One Planet sustainability roadmap and Mitsubishi's KAITEKI vision designed to conserve resources and contribute to safer, cleaner and more sustainable products, both companies are currently exploring logistics applications for the recovery, recycling and reprocessing of Udel® PSU medical components, with the aim of making recycled material suitable for reuse in original applications. Antonella Di Meo, Product Sustainability Manager at Solvay, said: "The agreement with Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials is the latest demonstration of Solvay's commitment to helping customers achieve their ambitious sustainability targets. This is part of our long-term commitment to developing sustainable solutions from bio-based or recycled sources. With this project, we want to practically demonstrate that it is possible to recycle high-value Udel® PSU parts used in medicine and achieve significant savings in CO2 emissions across production and supply chain." The project involves combining Solvay's ability to assess the chemistry of end-of-life polymers with expertise developed by MCAM for washing and mechanically purifying material to develop a robust recycling strategy that will provide customers with materials that fully meet all specifications. MCAM has already established a partnership with Solvay in the recovery and recycling of other high-performance polymers, including KetaSpire® polyetheretherketone (PEEK). Henning Bloech, Global Director of Sustainable Solutions at Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials, said: "Giving back more than we take is at the centre of MCAM's strategy and sustainability approach. We have embraced the KAITEKI concept to help us achieve our sustainability targets, grounded in our core values regarding environmental, social and human welfare. We fully support our partner Solvay in this endeavour. We look forward to maximizing the potential of our synergies to help our customers address the global plastic waste problem and reuse such polymers in demanding applications that support the circular economy. Combined with Solvay's polymer chemistry expertise, MCAM's mastery of mechanical recycling will help customers overcome the particular challenges they face in recycling and reusing these polymers in demanding applications that support the circular economy." Source