Use of Recyclate from Medical Plastic Waste in the Healthcare Sector

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10.12.2025 | events
Launch of KI4KI: Artificial intelligence for the plastics industry

On 25 November 2026, nine companies launched the KI4KI consortium project at the Plastic Innovation Centre 4.0 at the IKV. At the kick-off event, the partners’ key requirements were analysed, initial AI use cases were identified and valuable insights from the

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Call for Application: Bachelor’s Thesis or Master’s Thesis

Enhance your expertise in the injection molding process and melt quality, with particular emphasis on applications in medical technology.

Stuwi-Einsatz Rezyklat aus medizinischen Kunststoffabfällen im Gesundheitswesen — Injection-molded components for medical applications

Topic of the Thesis:

With an annual waste volume of approx. 4.8 million tons, hospitals are among the largest waste producers in Germany [Frauenhofer]. Due to the climate neutrality target adopted in 2021, the healthcare sector is also called upon to subordinate itself to the goal of climate neutrality by 2045. Currently, most of the plastic produced in hospitals is disposed of as residual waste and recycled for energy. Current efforts are aimed at intensifying waste separation and plastic sorting, thereby tapping into a significant material stream. The waste stream of medical packaging has been insufficiently researched in the past, meaning that little data is available on the composition of this plastic stream. There is also little knowledge about the potential areas of application in which the recyclate obtained from it can be used and its quality.

Objective:

Initially, a comprehensive literature review will be conducted to determine the regulatory requirements for the processing of medical plastic waste and to identify potential legal obstacles. This is followed by a detailed systematic analysis of the waste stream from clinics. The polyolefin products are then sorted, processed and pelletized from selected batches. In the final step, material analyses are carried out to determine the quality of the recyclate and to narrow down potential areas of application for the recycled material. One focus is on recording quality and testing potential applications in areas such as the packaging sector or transparent optical applications.

Furthermore, an extension of the existing Design for Recycling approaches is planned in order to ensure their applicability to medical technology packaging. The aim of the project is to develop initial recommendations for action that could potentially contribute to increasing the recyclability of these materials. As a result, the aim is to achieve a sustainable increase in the circular economy in the field of medical technology.

Your Tasks:

For a Bachelor's thesis, you will work on the following tasks	For a Master's thesis, you will work on the following tasks
Literature research and analysis of regulatory requirements	Literature research and analysis of regulatory requirements
Classification of the plastic composition	sorting and granulation of the first batches of recycled material and carrying out material analyses to determine the quality of the recycled material
Granulation of first recycling batches	extension of existing design-for-recycling approaches
Carrying out material analyses to determine the quality of the recyclate

Your Profile:

Technical or scientific studies
Motivated, careful and independent way of working
Interest in working on industry-related research projects

If you are looking for a practical thesis (BA/MA) and would like to support our team in working on the research project, please get in touch with me! We agree on the exact scope of content and schedule individually. I look forward to hearing from you.