{"id":11242,"date":"2026-06-24T10:25:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tristel.com\/au-en\/latest-news\/\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T17:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:00:16","slug":"balancing-ipc-convenience-and-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tristel.com\/au-en\/latest-news\/balancing-ipc-convenience-and-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing Infection Prevention and Control, Convenience and Sustainability\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The healthcare industry is a major contributor to carbon emissions and environmental waste, with 4.6% of global emissions, creating millions of tonnes of waste per year.1<\/sup> A major proportion of that comes from single use items.2<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One that is becoming increasingly popular is the single-use medical device.3<\/sup> Driving factors include combating hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and convenience, but using them comes with significant environmental implications.4<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Single-use medical devices have seen big growth, with expectations to only get bigger.5<\/sup> The increase has been driven by concerns of potential risks, a focus on reducing HAIs, patient safety and user behaviour.  A systematic review of single-use and reusable medical devices the carbon footprints found that reusable devices consistently had lower lifecycle footprints.6<\/sup>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The single-use devices market reached $25.18 billion in 2025, and is estimated to grow to $42.43 billion by 2030.7<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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A device intended by the manufacturer for a one-time use during a single procedure, to be discarded afterwards.<\/td>A device intended by the manufacturer for use more than once, such as a surgical instrument sterilised between uses.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the responsibility of balancing infection control and sustainability weighing healthcare professionals\u2019 shoulders, it is important to know the impacts both single use and reusable devices have on the environment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s break down the findings of two recent studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A comparison of environmental impacts between reusable and disposable flexible laryngoscopes <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Read Full Study Here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Disposable laryngoscopes are fast becoming the hallmark of the linear economy or \u201ctake-make-waste\u201d pipeline that often discounts its global impact on natural systems.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This study is the first of its kind to examine, quantify and compare the environmental impact of a single-use disposable flexible laryngoscope and a reusable flexible laryngoscope.\u202fTo compare environmental impacts of the two devices, a cradle-to-grave approach was utilised (according to the ISO 14040 standard) which encompasses the following stages: <\/p>\n\n\n\n