The nation’s largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of healthcare products, Medline, is expanding its plastics product processing in order to meet the demand for green products.
Medline is responding to the nearly 8 percent of customers who are now buying the pigment-free products that the company manufactures. In the product line for the natural site includes bedpans, wash basins, soap dishes, pitchers, carafes, and trays.
“Our pigment-free products support greener manufacturing because they eliminate the need for potentially harmful chemicals during the manufacturing process,” Francesca Olivier, Medline sustainability program manager, told Plastics Today.”
The packaging for these products use 35% post-consumer tree pulp and are engineered to ship more efficiently which results in a reduced carbon footprint.
“There is definitely a trend toward green purchasing in hospitals,” said Olivier. “Leaders in the health care industry are reaching beyond the boundaries of their hospital doors and raising standards upstream in their supply chain…As a manufacturer and distributor, we have improved our own manufacturing and product design to respond to such demands.”
Consumer Goal: Chemical Reduction
One primary customer, Dignity Health (San Francisco), for example, has a chemical reduction policy.
“We are proud that Dignity Health is the first health system that is changing its plastics to dye-free products for our patients across our network. It helps protect and improve the environment and, ultimately, public health,” said Sr. Mary Ellen Leciejewski, Dignity Health Ecology Program Coordinator. “Our support for environmentally responsible products underscores Dignity Health’s long-standing commitment to sustainability.”
By making the switch to pigment-free plastics, Dignity Health will divert an estimated 2,935 pounds of pigment from leaking into the soil and groundwater. The total value of their contract with Medline is $1 million per year.
When asked how Medline certifies when a certain type of product is more environmentally beneficial than another, Olivier told Plastics Today: “In the research done into each of our green products, we review six areas of the product’s life: raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, product use, end of life/disposal. Not only does this rigorous process ensure that no greenwashing occurs in our environmental claims, but it raises the standards of what we expect from our own suppliers and their impact on the environment.”
Another issue that has arisen for Medline is addressing a full line of reusable autoclavable plastic items.
“Health care is second only to the food industry in terms of waste generation – the most commonly cited statistic is 6,600 tons of waste is generated every day by the health care industry,” said Olivier. “Hospitals are realizing that they can reduce the amount of waste that leaves their facility by changing the products that they bring into it. We see this in the trend toward reusable products, as well as products that can be recycled or are part of a “take-back” program. By making strategic purchasing decisions like these they can not only improve their impact on the environment, but become more efficient and save money.”
As an industry leader, Medline manufactures more than 125,000 products to hospitals, extended care facilities, surgery centers, physician offices and home care dealers in the nation. The company has quickly become the fastest-growing distributor of medical and surgical suppliers in the U.S. in the last five years, and has served as the primary distributor to more than 450 major hospitals and healthcare systems.
Medline operates injection molding, blow molding, and extrusion machinery.
Source: Plastics Today
