The Role of PROs in Handling Digital Healthcare Waste

Brought to you by Rafael Serrano, Public Affairs and Communications Director at ECOLEC Waste Hub 

The application of digital technologies in healthcare and therefore the use of electromedical devices has been growing exponentially in recent years. This phenomenon is not only happening in hospital settings but also spreading to personal (home) use cases. Examples of personal devices can be personal health monitors, automatic medication dispensers or smart pillboxes among many other applications. The widespread use of these technologies clearly leads to an improvement in living conditions and patient care, but unfortunately also implies an increase in the generation of waste. 

The DiCE Project (Digital Health in the Circular Economy), in which ECOLEC Waste Hub is actively engaged, seeks to integrate circular economy principles into the management of electromedical wastes.  

ECOLEC is an authorised Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) for waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Spain that manages the collection and treatment of over 100 million kg of WEEE per year. Emphasising the complexity of the operations performed, ECOLEC handles approximately 30,000 collections from 2,750 points across the country with full traceability through a network of more than 40 logistics operators and 80 authorised facilities performing preparation for reuse and recycling operations.  

ECOLEC currently enables its members – producers of electromedical devices – to comply with their waste management obligations arising from the market placement of their products. Consequently, supporting these affiliated producers, in 2024, ECOLEC managed 240,000 kg of waste from electromedical devices.  

However, due to the increased use of digital health devices (especially of small devices for personal use), new approaches will be required to improve collection and the circularity of their components and materials. Hence why ECOLEC joined the DiCE project. 

ECOLEC, in coordination with other PROs from Belgium and Slovenia equally participating in DiCE Project, play a key role in the promotion of the collection of electromedical devices at their end-of-their life by allowing its disposition through a network of intelligent containers or through a free postal service. They also contribute to the development of innovative reverse logistics processes (e.g. traceability by tags allowing electronic reading or leveraging of suppliers performing direct deliveries) to overcome the challenges in the collection and management of these wastes. 

Worth mentioning the additional complexity biological risks that some of these types of wastes may present. Due to this intricacy, they cannot be treated directly as WEEE but require prior decontamination.  

Finally, ECOLEC also aims to develop relationships with players engaged in the collection and management of wastes from medical wastes in Spain to exploit synergies and simplify the processes for all the actors involved. 

ECOLEC, supporting the DiCE project, contributes to the design of a replicable model, demonstrating that the Circular Economy is feasible even in complex sectors such as healthcare. 

January 27, 2025