The environmental impacts of medical workwear in Germany

Abstract

This study presents a life cycle assessment of medical workwear, which is an essential type of clothing worn by millions of medical professionals worldwide. The study aims to identify the environmental hotspots and to assess potential reduction scenarios to support decision and policy-making. The study employs LCA as the chosen method to analyse the environmental impacts of five typical medical workwear garments: scrub top, scrub trousers, polo shirt, doctor's coat, and doctor's trousers. Additionally, ten reduction scenarios and sensitivity analyses on nine parameters are presented. For the majority of environmental impact categories, the use phase, particularly the washing of medical workwear, is the most important contributor. The assessment of potential reduction scenarios showed that actions on energy usage and material efficiency are the most effective. Combining several of these mitigation actions, environmental impacts can be reduced significantly, e.g. the global warming potential of the scrub top can be reduced by more than 70 % from 15.5 kg CO2eq to 4.1 kg CO2eq. The results help policy and decision makers in healthcare to consider environmental impacts in their decision-making and identify potential reduction actions. Laundry companies have a crucial role in reducing overall environmental impacts by using renewable energies, improving efficiency and increasing recycling.

Methods & Results

For a complete summary of this data source and to see reported environmental impact values for studied products and activities, explore the HealthcareLCA Database.

Citation

Wagner V, Keil M, Lang-Koetz C, Viere T. Screening life cycle assessment of medical workwear and potential mitigation scenarios. Sustainable production and consumption. 2023;40:602–12.