RecoMed (Manchester / UK; www.recomed.co.uk) has launched a new website following growing interestin its services from hospitals. The UK scheme collects and recycles waste medical items from UK hospitals, such as oxygen masks and tubing, made from high-quality medical grade PVC. It is run by Axion Polymers (Salford / UK; www.axiongroup.co.uk), backed by the British Plastics Federation (BPF, London; www.bpf.co.uk), funded by VinylPlus (Brussels / Belgium; www.vinylplus.eu) and currently used by 37 hospitals across the UK. RecoMed says it has recycled nearly 22.5 t of PVC to date, equivalent to around 747,000 oxygen masks. More than 9 t of this was collected and recycled in 2019.

Growing interest in the operation’s work prompted the new website, says Mick Claes, senior consultant at Axion and project leader of RecoMed. “The scheme is growing, and we are seeing keen interest from healthcare professionals who see first-hand the very large amounts of plastics waste generated through their procedures, such as anaesthetics for example.” Claes adds that RecoMed is looking to team up with other PVC product manufacturers to find new circular applications for the recycled material to ramp up the recycling rates for medical devices made from PVC.