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Communication Strategies for Healthcare: Single-Use to Reuse in the Circular Economy
Summary
This research explores how hospitals can transition from single-use plastics to reusable alternatives, citing advanced sterilization and companies like Terracycle as enabling tools. Effective communication strategies are highlighted as critical for encouraging healthcare facilities to adopt circular plastic practices given growing evidence of microplastics in human tissues.
Healthcare settings generate 14,000 tons of waste daily with approximately 20-25% of this waste being single-use plastic (Reducing plastic use in health care, Providence, 2025). Microplastics are increasingly being found in the human brain tissues and other organizations which is raising concerns about serious long-term health impacts (Reducing plastic use in health care, Providence, 2025). This research dives into how hospitals can encourage reusable initiatives. One example is the company Terracycle that collects and reuses specific plastic materials to help with the breakdown and reprocessing content used in the healthcare industry (About TerraCycle®, 2026). Another example is the advanced sterilization process has become accessible to the healthcare industry providing this as a tool to be used in the workplace (How Sustainable Plastics are Improving the Healthcare Industry, Plastics Industry Association, 2025). Bringing attention to these initiatives in the healthcare industry is important and developing new communications strategies can improve the well being of patients for the future.