The environmental impact of sterile and non-sterile hospital gowns in Spain

Research highlights

"The results were especially relevant in the case of climate change, in which the carbon footprint of a single gown ranged from 0.14 kg of CO2e, in the case of the simple non-sterile gown, to 0.55 in the reinforced sterile surgical gown."
"As was expected, the more sophisticated gowns were those with a higher environmental impact overall, especially the high risk sterile surgical gown."
"Despite the lower environmental impacts per unit in every environmental footprint category, the non-sterile gowns were the ones that contributed more to the impacts generated by the Francesc de Borja Hospital due to their high annual consumption."
"A circular economy model based on the non-sterile gown could reduce carbon emissions by 75% compared to the conventional manufacturing process of the gown."

Abstract

Hospitals generate huge amounts of nonwoven residues daily. This paper focused on studying the evolution of nonwoven waste generated in the Francesc de Borja Hospital, Spain, over the last few years and its relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective was to identify the most impacting pieces of nonwoven equipment in the hospital and to analyze possible solutions. The carbon footprint of the nonwoven equipment was studied through a life-cycle assessment. The results showed an apparent increase in the carbon footprint in the hospital from 2020. Additionally, due to the higher annual volume, the simple nonwoven gown used primarily for patients had a higher carbon footprint over a year than the more sophisticated surgical gowns. It can be concluded that developing a local circular economy strategy for medical equipment could be the solution to avoid the enormous waste generation and the carbon footprint of nonwoven production.

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

Quintana-Gallardo A, del Rey R, González-Conca S, Guillén-Guillamón I. The Environmental Impacts of Disposable Nonwoven Fabrics during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study on the Francesc de Borja Hospital. Polymers. 2023; 15(5):1130.