Healthcare waste: from incineration to pyrolysis: a comparative life cycle assessment of two different healthcare plastic waste management processes

Plastic waste from healthcare is an increasing environmental challenge, particularly in resource-intensive clinical pathways such as dialysis. Peritoneal dialysis (PD) generates large quantities of single-use plastic materials, making its waste stream a priority for sustainable intervention. Conventional disposal through incineration contributes substantially to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and produces hazardous ash. Pyrolysis, a chemical recycling process that converts mixed plastic waste into usable outputs, has been proposed as a lower-carbon alternative. This study aimed to estimate the change in GHG emissions and key environmental co impacts if a hospital nephrology service were to switch its PD plastic waste treatment from incineration to pyrolysis.