What Does China's Plastic Ban Mean for Healthcare?

In July of 2017, China announced it is no longer accepting imports of 24 categories of consumer waste, including commonly recycled post-consumer plastics and paper products. Almost every country exported a portion of their recyclables to China – now there are shockwaves being felt around the world as waste piles up and has nowhere to go.

HPRC, along with its strategic partner, PLASTICS, sees bright spots and areas for innovation in healthcare plastics recycling. Read about the impacts of the Chinese ban, and the alternative solutions that are being worked out here in the US.

About HPRC

HPRC is a private technical coalition of industry peers across healthcare, recycling and waste management industries seeking to improve recyclability of plastic products within healthcare. HPRC is made up of brand leading and globally recognized members including Baxter, BD, Cardinal Health, DuPont, Eastman Chemical Company, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Nelipak Healthcare Packaging and Ravago Recycling Group. The council convenes biannually at meetings hosted by an HPRC member that regularly include stakeholder engagement events and facility tours to further learning and knowledge sharing opportunities through first-hand demonstration of best practices in sustainable product and packaging design and recycling processes. For more information, visit http://www.hprc.org and follow HPRC on LinkedIn.