The Management and Stewardship of Medical Plastic Waste using Raman Spectroscopy to Sustain Circular Economy

Recycle and reuse of plastic material largely involved in medical acts is the subject of strict regulations and ethical guidelines. Different categories and types of plastics are used to date in medical units, mainly polypropylene and polyethylene, transparent or colored of high or low density. Regardless if they are contaminated or not with harmful pathogens, their disposal is an increasing problem with high costs for proper management and therefore their recycling must involve special management of waste. Here we prospect the possibility to implement new laser-based Raman technology for innovative sorting of residual medical plastic. Currently, medical plastic waste disposal attached enormous attention in the frame of circular economy for avoiding costs and pollution produced by the incineration procedures. To explore any potential added-value by-product resulted from medical waste we need to understand their structure and properties after medical use. Since medical grade plastics raised questions on their dissimilarity to ordinary polymers, we investigated their structural properties using Raman spectroscopy. Further, an algorithm based on plastic Raman signal could provide information on the type of plastics, potential microbial contaminants on used plastics, the influence of the used substances/drugs on the plastics molecular identity and finally, a database for rapid and cost-effective sorting for proper management. To achieve that, we investigated the influence on the pigments on the Raman signal of colored plastics material frequently used in medical environment.