Flexible plastic packaging (including plastic bags, stretch and shrink film, sterilization wrap, and medical device packaging) represents a major class of materials common to the healthcare waste stream. However, due to the lack of a standard composition, the potential for the presence of different resins across the layers, and the difficulty of manual sorting, recycling these materials is complicated.

In light of these obstacles, HPRC has undertaken a Flexibles Recyclability Assessment pilot project aimed at showing that, with proper controls, flexible packaging can be successfully segregated from the OR waste stream without fear of hazardous material contamination. Our work, an extension and expansion of a previous HPRC project conducted with Penn State University, indicates that a mixed-material stream of flexibles from multiple sources can be processed and pelletized into a resin for use in a secondary application.