Waste management: Safe handling and conserving resources

Waste management in healthcare: Special requirements

Fresenius wants to make a contribution to using resources efficiently. However, there are strict hygiene standards in the healthcare sector that are essential for patient safety: For example, our hospital staff use numerous supplies in day-to-day hospital operations such as gloves, face masks, and syringes, which must be disposed of after they have been used once. At its production sites, Fresenius has to use certain materials for packaging pharmaceuticals, even though these are disposed of by nursing staff or private individuals immediately after unpacking. However, systematic waste management can help us to achieve our goal of efficient use of resources, and to minimize our impact on the environment as far as possible through our waste handling.

Handling waste in the health sector is strictly regulated. Waste must not pose a danger to our patients, our employees, or the environment. Our production processes and the treatments at our healthcare facilities must always be carried out under hygienic and sterile conditions. All business segments must always dispose of their waste professionally and safely.

What waste is generated at Fresenius

After a shift in production, empty drug containers, solvent residues and other waste products must be disposed of – however, each has a very different route. This is because containers or bottles are non-hazardous waste, whereas solvents represent a potential hazard. Hazardous waste may be infectious or toxic, but it is also capable of undergoing reactions. This means that if it is not handled properly, it may become hazardous for employees, facilities and systems, or the environment, due to its potential for chemical reactions. Hazardous substances therefore need to be handled with a great deal of care.

Waste volumes 2023

Examples of non-hazardous waste

• Paper and cardboard packaging
• Empty containers and packaging material without contamination
• Uncontaminated disposable gloves
• Plastic and metal waste from administrative areas and medical devices
• Production waste from nontoxic and nonreactive materials
• Food waste
• Glass containers without residues
• Uncontaminated medical devices
• Laundry and disposable clothing
• Bandages and diapers

Examples of (potentially) hazardous waste

• Contaminated syringes and needles
• Infectious samples and tissues
• Biological waste such as blood, or materials such as cell cultures
• Chemicals for disinfection such as formaldehyde
• Radioactive waste from diagnostic procedures
• Residues from chemical reactions, e.g. sulfuric acid
• Residues of filtration and cleaning processes
• Waste from chemotherapy
• Sharp and pointed objects such as scalpels
• Packaging material with residues of hazardous chemicals

The different forms of waste are categorized at all facilities, production sites, logistics and compounding centers, and sorted by types of waste and disposal methods. Plastic waste represents the largest proportion at Fresenius Kabi. Wound and plaster dressings, underwear, disposable clothing, and diapers make up the largest proportion of waste at Helios and Quirónsalud.

The pathways to disposal and recycling

Our precise approach to waste depends on the business activity and business segment. We must separate our waste in accordance with local, national, and industry-specific regulations, and store and dispose of the waste in such a way as to ensure that the environment is not polluted or contaminated, and no harm comes to people.

After a production run or treatment, our staff dispose utensils that can no longer be used into appropriate disposal bins. Waste management companies take the various types of waste away to a depot. If waste can be reused, it is sent for recycling. Most recyclable hazardous waste is processed and then reused for a similar or different purpose. Non-recyclable hazardous waste is mainly incinerated. A large amount of energy can be obtained from this source and used. Non-hazardous waste that cannot be reused is disposed of by incineration, or composting, or sent to landfill. Biological waste derived from patient care and laboratories – for example infectious waste or spent cultures – depending how dangerous they are, are incinerated or converted and ultimately taken to a safe landfill.

Disposal routes

Product development: Considering waste avoidance

When we design new healthcare products and upgrade existing ones, we take account of environmental aspects right from the start. One example of this approach is the reduction of the proportion of plastic by more than 30% in our EasyBottle containers for hydration since 2011, by comparison with the previous model. Furthermore, we are seeking to reduce the amount of packaging for finished products. We also incorporate feedback from customers and patients so as to reduce unnecessary waste in our product packaging. However, since we have to meet strict requirements for patient safety and the quality of pharmaceutical products, we can only optimize medicinal products and protective packaging to a certain extent while conserving resources. Ultimately, the priority here as elsewhere is always safety.

Reusing and recycling

Fresenius has established many processes to promote the use of reusable products and recycling at different levels. For example, we clean and package various medical instruments and supplies such as scalpels and clamps in hospitals and other medical facilities so that they can be reused in sterile condition. This enables us to save on single-use items.

All visitors to Helios cafeterias in Germany are able to borrow recyclable food containers for their takeaway food instead of using throwaway tableware. Furthermore, all hospitals operated by Quirónsalud in Spain have order catalogs for disposable items made of more sustainable materials such as recycled or recyclable paper, and cardboard.

Quirónsalud is pursuing its ambition of increasing the recycling rate of packaging materials and is primarily concentrating on the use of paper and lightweight packaging. Furthermore, employees should be able to recognize recyclable material quickly and easily in order to be able to place it in the correct containers. The segment was already working on realizing this ambition in 2022 by cooperating with a supplier to provide better identification for recyclable packaging.