Researchers work to solve healthcare’s growing e-waste problem
Associate Professor Daniel Fürstenau and PhD Fellow Camille Rønn lead a 9-million-euro Horizon Europe project aimed at solving the growing e-waste problem in the healthcare industry and closing its current linear take-make-waste operations.
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Written 19 June, 2024 07:14 by Sondre Holm
Did you know that electronic waste (e-waste) is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world, with each year an equivalent of the Great Wall of China being produced worldwide?
With the increase in digitalised health solutions, the healthcare industry is creating a new paradigm for healthcare providers and hospitals. However, this growth in digital health solutions also brings a growing e-waste problem, that makes an already complex healthcare waste stream and its heavy reliance on single-use medical devices a significant actor in the global CO2 emissions.
Since 2022, Digital Health in the Circular Economy (DiCE), a Horizon Europe funded research project spearheaded by Associate Professor Daniel Fürstenau and PhD Fellow Camille Rønn from IT University of Copenhagen, has sought to tackle the issue with a circular economy approach.
The circular economy principles emphasise reducing pollution and extending the product and material usage for as long as possible, thereby decoupling value creation from additional material consumption. The project seeks to implement the circular economy principles for digital health devices with the belief that if the healthcare industry can successfully do so, any industry can as well.
Fürstenau and Rønn have recently submitted the intermediate report documenting significant progress in the project:
“Moving towards circularity is no easy task in any industry, but healthcare specifically has unique challenges specific to its unique traits. Challenges like patient safety, quality assurance, contamination risks, and strict regulatory and compliance requirements are all factors which challenge and complicate circular economy initiatives. In the first phase of DiCE, we have among other things produced viable business model alternatives that are rooted in circular economy principles and shown how these can be incorporated in the healthcare setting,” says Daniel Fürstenau.
The project is divided into seven work packages to tackle circular product design, optimisation of technology for reverse logistics, creating citizen engagement and influencing consumer behaviors, creating performance and life cycle assessments on the circular product designs, and developing business models and policies.
Daniel Fürstenau and Camille Rønn are leading the development of circular business models and creating roadmaps for industry players to implement circular practices.
“Healthcare is a complex industry and finding an operational and financially proven business model for companies to pursue a circular economy is the big challenge we are pursuing to solve. Transforming into a circular economy requires a systematic change tapping into an ecosystem of players that each must benefit from participating. In this project, we want to develop and test business models for the different players and create recommendations, which will then be applied to the real world and hopefully bring forth more environmentally friendly practices in the healthcare industry,” says Camille Rønn.
The project’s final output will be a rollout of large-scale pilots in five chosen EU countries broadly testing the new circular designed products, technologies, nudging strategies, and the operationality and financial viability of the circular business models.
The project was launched on 1 October 2022 and ends on 30 September 2026. The 25 project partners consist of Janssen, Johnson & Johnson Medtech, Philips, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Business School, ECOLEC Fundación, Ekosij, Games for Health, Ghent University, Grin, IETU, Fundación Intras, MIREC, LiCalab, 30 RRA Podravje Maribor, Recupel, RUB, WEEE Forum, TU Delft, and the World Resources Forum.
The project is funded by the European Union and Johnson & Johnson.
Theis Duelund Jensen, Press Officer, +45 25 55 04 47, thej@itu.dk