Circular Procurement in Healthcare

In Spring 20236, the Flemish Government will launch a Green Deal Sustainable Heathcare together with many partners. Circularity will be one of the four major themes within this green deal. On this page we want to collect inspiring examples and publications, specifically for the healthcare sector. This includes, for example, the purchase of medical equipment, medical instruments and medicines. But of course there are also more generic product groups that are important for the healthcare sector. On the other product group pages you will find information about construction, textiles, ICT, office furnishing, catering, paper and cardboard, packaging, textiles and maintenance products.

Circulair procurement strategies Healthcare

  • Share internally
  • Rent or share peer to peer
  • Reuse, Refurbish or Upgrade
  • Minimal use of material in design
  • Less waste: the healthcare sector traditionally makes extensive use of many single-use products. This results in huge amounts of waste, but also a high dependence on the supply chain. It is therefore important to look for reusable or more environmentally friendly alternatives, without compromising the safety of patients and staff.

  • Insight into the share of recycled, biobased and virgin materials
  • Increase the share of recycled content Increase the share of biobased content
  • Energy, water and gas consumption during the use phase: opt for efficient equipment and optimal settings. The EU GPP criteria will help you procuring them.

  • Extended warranty
  • Contractual agreements for maintenance and repair
  • Upgradeable Products
  • Design for longevity
  • Repairability and maintainability
  • Modular/change-oriented design
  • Contractual incentives to extend service life
  • Advice on usage optimisation by supplier

  • Design for Diassembly
  • Modular design
  • Standardised design
  • Insight into composition and connections
  • Contractual agreements on take-back and reuse
  • Stimulating circular revenue models

  • Design for recycling: make sure that products are easy to disassemble and that the materials are easy to recycle. For example, by choosing mono materials.
  • Insight into materials: you can include in your criteria that plastic parts must be marked with the type of plastic
  • Contractual arrangements for return and recycling
  • Reducing Toxicity: Many of the products used in healthcare such as disinfectants, medical devices, furniture, electronic devices, solvents and medicines contain harmful chemicals. These toxic substances must be replaced by safer alternatives. In for the safety of patients and staff, but also to be able to safely close the cycle of products and materials. Healthcare without harm published a list of substances to avoid.
  • Biodegradable/ compostable
  • Stimulating circular revenue models

Criteria

Circular Procurement Projects in Healthcare

 

Wednesday 27 March 2024

The waste management company Vanheede Environment Group has been committed to circular waste management for decades. With the introduction of Medybin, they now offer an environmentally friendly alter…

 

Monday 10 July 2023

In Sweden, most preschools are run by the municipalities. In the city of Malmö, there are over 200 preschools for which the municipality procures baby strollers and buses. The products are generally …

 

Wednesday 4 November 2020

In their tender for the framework contract for incontinence material, Zorgbedrijf Antwerpen incorporated sustainability in the awarding criteria. For the bid package on incontinence material for perv…

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Publications About Circular Procurement in Healthcare

 

Deliveries for the healthcare sector come with large quantities of packaging. Packaging protects healthcare products, but also constitutes a complex type of waste for the healthcare sector, with cons…

 

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe has interviewed leading sustainable healthcare providers and compiled case studies in this report to inspire other procurers to advance strategic procurement in…

 

In this publication, Sustainable food contact materials in the European healthcare sector, HCWH has gathered information on the health and environmental risks of commonly used FCMs, including plastic…

 

Measuring and reducing plastics in the healthcare sector, provides data on plastic use in the healthcare sector and successful case studies of reducing plastics. It also gives you practical steps on …

 

A variety of hazardous chemicals can be found in medical textiles and their production methods. HCWH Europe’s latest publication, The role of chemistry in sustainable medical textiles, provides a con…

 

Nordic Center for Sustainable Healthcare (NCSH) is a cross-sectoral arena and network involving stakeholders, organizations, projects and expertise in the area of sustainable healthcare, all sharing …

 

Health Care Without Harm Europe is an international healthcare network dedicated to making the healthcare sector more sustainable. This page of their website focuses on circularity in healthcare.

Overview of product categories

Information about circular procument and example cases per specific product category.

bouwConstruction

cateringCatering

ICTICT

infrastructuur
Infrastructure

office furniture design and lighting
Office Furniture

PAPIER & KANTOOR- MATERIAALPaper & Office Supplies
 

Health Care
Health Care

VERPAKKING
Packaging

WERKKLEDIJ
Textiles


Cleaning products

Vehicles

Electrical Vehicle Chargers (EVC)