“It is unbelievable how much medical waste is still being incinerated today,” states Cees Duijn of Blue2Green. Based on an intrinsic motivation to make the healthcare sector more sustainable, his company and Milgro recently joined forces. Blue2Green's innovative technique of decontamination and recycling enables Milgro to relieve its clients in the healthcare sector of all their waste management worries.
Further on, an explanation of that complicated word decontaminate. First: Cees Duijn is busy. The whole day is dedicated to job interviews to recruit new employees for his new and growing company. The challenge of making the healthcare sector more sustainable and circular is also great. Through Milgro's healthcare clients, among others, Blue2Green will soon have a sizable stream of infectious medical waste to process. This involves more than 3,000 tons of needles, tissues, plastic tubes and anything else that disappears into wastebaskets within healthcare facilities.
Speaking of decontaminating
Duijn explains why the medical sector is beyond interested in Blue2Green's solution. “It has to do with the unique processing of infected medical waste. We are currently building a plant that can decontaminate and recycle this type of waste.”
A brief explanation follows: decontamination is the process by which heating destroys infections from medical waste, making the medical waste regular operating waste after processing. This decontaminated waste is then recycled through a sorting line into high-quality raw materials that can more easily find a way back into the chain. “A much better and more circular solution than simply burning it,” Duijn points out delicately.
Collaboration between Blue2Green and Milgro
Striving to offer the healthcare sector the most ecological solutions and to maximize waste streams, Milgro and Blue2Green found each other a while back. Blue2Green as an innovator with a new type of waste processing technology. Milgro as a total caregiver on waste.
Milgro relieves its customers in the healthcare sector in controlling all waste streams and is constantly looking for new and effective processing techniques. Through the cooperation with Blue2Green there is now also a solution for difficult to process infectious medical waste. “We are complementary to each other in this,” Duijn states, emphasizing, ”But not dependent on each other.” However, the benefits for healthcare sector are great; by completely unburdening themselves on the entire waste management, healthcare organizations have the assurance of the greatest possible ecological impact.
Understanding performance for Green Deal Sustainable Care
Through its online dashboard, Milgro offers insight into the waste performance of medical centers and healthcare institutions in the Netherlands. This insight is important, given the agreements in the Green Deal Sustainable Care. It is the starting point to control waste streams and work towards a more circular healthcare sector. It also looks at optimizations in which waste streams can be ecologically better processed, reduced or prevented. This fits perfectly with the approach Milgro uses. As part of the collaboration, Blue2Green provides Milgro with data, which Milgro processes in their dashboard. The dashboard then shows healthcare organizations the CO2 impact of choosing to recycle medical waste compared to burning it.
An energizing journey
Duijn is now more than two and a half years into developing the plant. And many euros further. By October 2024, the plant will be ready to start. It has been an exciting journey for Duijn, in which he has had to fight (and is still fighting) “as a new kid on the block” against the established order.
Medical waste recycling: the new standard
Eventually, hospitals are going to opt for a more sustainable way of handling medical waste, he is convinced. As will the movement that traditional waste processors will begin to make toward the way Blue2Green handles infected medical waste. “Right now, the processing of medical waste is as linear as anything, as flat as a dime. It can't be that way anymore. We, along with Milgro, want to do something about that. Decontamination and recycling will become the new standard.”
“Right now, the processing of medical waste is as linear as anything, as flat as a dime. That can't continue like this. We, together with Milgro, want to do something about that. Decontamination is becoming the new standard.”
On to commissioning
Cees Duijn is already looking forward to commissioning the plant in Velsen-Noord, the only one of its kind in all of northwestern Europe, he assures. “When we run at maximum capacity, we can save 2.6 kilotons of CO2 emissions annually, and 75% of the raw materials that are currently wasted. Together we are taking a huge step toward a circular healthcare sector.”
Want to know more?
Would you like to know more about the possibilities this cooperation offers for your organization and your medical waste? Make a no-obligation introductory appointment.
