Medicine strips, formally known as pharmaceutical blister packaging, cannot be recycled because they are made of plastic and aluminum heat-sealed together with a type of glue.
It is difficult to separate the materials in this multi-layer packaging so the strips are usually discarded as general waste.
To avoid having to throw them in the incinerators, a group of engineering students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) came up with a chemical recycling method to separate plastic from aluminum and salvage both components.
Both materials can then be sent to recycling companies.
This student initiative, called the Green Doctors Programme, was born last August when a pharmacist from the National University Hospital (NUH) approached the NUS department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to find a way to reduce medical waste.
Every month, commonly prescribed medicines at NUH account for about 200,000 medicine strips being used up.
Overall, about five million strips are thrown away every month in Singapore, said Ms Sophia Ding, founder of the Green Doctors Programme, and final-year civil and environmental engineering student at NUS.
Chemical recycling involves adding chemicals to the waste materials to break down their original structures.
After three months of research, the Green Doctors Programme concocted a recipe to dissolve the adhesive layer between the plastic and aluminum earlier this year, so that the materials can be separated.
The team, which includes about 10 chemical, environmental and mechanical engineering students, has been testing and working to optimize their solution using medicine strips provided by NUH.
According to the World Health Organisation, about 85 percent of all waste from healthcare activities is non-hazardous, general waste.
The remaining 15 percent is biohazardous waste that is infectious, toxic or radioactive, and must be collected and disposed of safely and carefully to prevent cross-contamination and other public health risks.
Former Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said in 2021 that the amount of biohazardous waste generated in Singapore increased from 4,400 tonnes in 2016 to 5,700 tonnes in 2020.
Gan said hospitals and clinics have been mindful to reduce and recycle non-biohazardous waste, including packaging for sterile equipment, fluids, and glove wrappings.
Professor Seeram Ramakrishna, chair of the NUS Circular Economy Taskforce, said much suitable medical or pharmaceutical waste is not recycled due to the challenges in segregating and pre-cleaning before recycling, in case it is biohazardous.
But he noted that recycling industries are keen on trying to recycle plastics and other disposables, which have been treated and certified as non-biohazardous.
Recently, hospitals and healthcare players here have been taking gradual steps to reduce their medical disposables and recycle them.
Since 2020, the Singapore General Hospital has been sending stainless steel disposables, such as surgical instruments and laryngoscope blades, to vendors for recycling.
By 2030, Alexandra Hospital plans to reduce its waste by 60 percent and raise its recycling rate by the same amount.
The hospital is looking to see if their alcohol-based hand rub bottles can be cleaned so that they can be given to recyclers.
The Green Doctors Programme also plans to look into how other types of hard-to-recycle medical waste such as IV bags can be recycled.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES