The Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC) welcomes Nelipak Healthcare Packaging, a global leader in custom thermoformed packaging that provides superior protection for medical devices and pharmaceuticals, as its newest member. Headquartered in Cranston, Rhode Island, with ten production facilities across the United States, Central America and Europe, Nelipak produces medical trays and blisters, surgical procedure trays, pharmaceutical handling trays, and custom built sealing machines among other value-added services.
“As a manufacturing leader in healthcare packaging, Nelipak offers important insights into new technologies and design best practices that can help increase the recyclability of these materials,” says Peylina Chu, Director of HPRC. “Their input and wide range of expertise will be vital in helping support our goal of increasing the overall recycling of healthcare plastics.”
“Nelipak is committed to sustainable practices and works with our customers to provide a systematic approach to the packaging process which results in efficient design, material use, pack configuration, handling, shipping and end user costs,” said Seán Egan, Director of Global Marketing, Nelipak Healthcare Packaging. “We look forward to collaborating with the other members of HPRC to advance our mutual goals of reducing packaging waste during production and optimizing waste recycling for hospitals.”
Other HPRC members include Baxter, BD, Cardinal Health, DuPont, Eastman Chemical Company, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic and Ravago Recycling Group. Each HPRC member company is a leader in their respective industry, whether healthcare, recycling or waste management, with a demonstrated expertise, commitment, and passion for shaping the future of plastics recycling and reducing the environmental footprint of not only their own operations but also the operations of their customers.
HPRC is currently engaged in multiple initiatives aimed at enabling recycling of healthcare plastics, including: recycling pilot study programs at select healthcare facilities, development of a how-to guide, called HospiCycle, for hospitals seeking to recycle healthcare plastics generated in their facilities, development of plastic product and packaging design guidelines to improve end-of-life recyclability, and resin testing of the technical limitations in plastics reprocessing.
Read the Packaging Digest write-up here.