Single-use materials are the standard in the medical and pharmaceutical industries. The growing market for home-use products requires simple to use drug delivery systems. At the same time, the demand for treatments is increasing. These single-use products are often incinerated or thrown into landfill after use. The problem is that, due to their short life cycle, valuable materials are lost to the circular economy.

In this highly regulated market, the project encountered unexpected challenges, such as the EU’s ADR regulations for the transport of dangerous goods. There is still much to learn and optimize as we move towards a closed-loop system. However, our team is excited by these challenges and is setting new standards for the circular material flows.

Sustainable product development has been a challenge for us designers since the 1960s. In order to develop forward-looking medical products with a long-life cycle, we have used international regulations to minimize risk. These regulations have helped us identify and integrate successful business models – always with the well-being of the patient in mind. The take-back program accelerates EU market approval and dynamizes the process of developing circular products.

Over the past five years, we have invested in medical research, education and collaborative innovation projects, and established a center of excellence called circulab. In partnership with Johnson & Johnson and other collaborators, we have developed a closed-loop system for auto-injectors. This includes working with national postal services to ensure transport from the patient to our disassembly facility. Other measures include robotic sorting and identification of different autoinjectors for automated disassembly, followed by delivery of the components to the manufacturer for re-production.