Dispelling Sustainable Flexible Packaging Myths in Healthcare

It’s no secret — businesses today seek to be more responsible stewards of the Earth. In industries where it may have once seemed impossible, innovation is rampant as organizations develop new techniques to reduce waste and greenhouse gasses.

But, given the complexities and specific performance requirements in healthcare, is it possible to design sustainable healthcare packaging? In many ways, yes. Despite numerous factors that sometimes hinder recyclability — including sterilization methods during manufacturing and biohazards during end-use — healthcare packaging solutions continue to grow more sustainable.

Let’s dig into and dispel some popular sustainable flexible packaging myths:
Myth 1: Healthcare Packaging is Not Sustainable
Myth 2: Paper is Always the Most Sustainable Option
Myth 3: It Takes More Resources Than It’s Worth Moving to Sustainable Solutions

Myth 1: Healthcare Packaging is Not Sustainable

This might have been true decades ago, but don’t count out the creativity and innovative spirits of scientists and others in the industry who strive for a better world. Much healthcare packaging today is fashioned with full environmental consciousness, with manufacturers pursuing new recycle-ready raw materials and finding ways to cut down on waste during or after production.

To promote sustainability, it’s key to initially design flexible packaging products as recycle-ready — meaning they’re prepared to be plugged into current or future recycling streams within healthcare facilities. And while the primary objective of any healthcare packaging is to keep its contents safe and sterilized, choosing the chemical makeup of the material makes a difference for its sustainability.

Furthermore, products can be optimally designed to address both performance requirements and sustainability goals. A common example is downgauging, where the thickness of the material is reduced while still offering the performance required for the application.

And if the manufacturing process does produce waste, some of the scrapped materials from recycle-ready production can be sold to recyclers from where it’s made — reducing waste in percentages and dollars.

Myth 2: Paper is Always the Most Sustainable Option

There’s some nuance when it comes to the sustainability of paper in healthcare packaging. Paper in general can often be produced in environmentally friendly ways given its derivation from renewable resources. Furthermore, paper can be produced with less energy, yielding fewer carbon emissions. However, paper production uses significantly more water than plastic production.

Reinforced and unreinforced papers are designed to maintain porosity throughout sterilization and product shelf life. They have a smaller carbon footprint than comparable porous products, which is good news for manufacturers — with one important caveat.

Additives are used to ensure the paper maintains its strength when exposed to moisture that accompanies sterilization processes. These additives make reinforced and unreinforced paper incompatible with standard recycling streams.

So, it may come as a surprise that paper isn’t typically the best in terms of recycling after it’s been used. Some sustainable paper packaging is possible, however. Other materials, such as PE film-based materials, offer better recycle-ready properties when sterilization processes allow.

Myth 3: It Takes More Resources Than It’s Worth Moving to Sustainable Solutions

We’ve gone to great lengths innovating healthcare packaging solutions that meet the strictest medical-grade criteria while checking as many boxes as we can in the sustainability column — and we won’t stop pushing for even more advancements.

Throughout our commitment to sustainability, we’ve developed some of our most sustainable and cost-effective packages, which include:

• Amcor HealthCare™ Pouches, which are used in orthopedics, injection systems, and diagnostics
• Amcor HealthCare™ SureForm Pro Forming Films: recycle-ready and puncture- and abrasion-resistant packages available for a variety of medical devices

And these are just a couple of our many sustainable options.

Assess the Life Cycle of Your Packaging Solutions

Our team would love to start a dialogue on how we can help you maximize your sustainability impact. We’ve created a service called ASSET™ that evaluates the life cycle of different Amcor packaging solutions for your products using a Carbon Trust-certified toolkit.

The service helps paint a complete picture of the true environmental impacts of your packaging so you can determine the best sustainable option. Click the link to learn more and sign up today.