Medical

Medical waste no longer being wasted

Medical waste no longer being wasted
PELLA-DRX is a building material made from medical waste
PELLA-DRX is a building material made from medical waste
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PELLA-DRX is a building material made from medical waste
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PELLA-DRX is a building material made from medical waste

Back in the 70’s, Mad Magazine ran a satirical article proposing crazy new methods of dealing with garbage. One of them involved taking the trash, compressing it into cubes, then building things out of those. Flash forward to 2010, and a Houston company is doing almost that very thing, and with medical waste, no less. Sharps Compliance takes items like needles, syringes and lancets, and presses them into a pelletized building material called PELLA-DRX.

Sharps specializes in the disposal of injecting supplies from individuals and clinics. The waste is already being sent into them by the users, so no transportation is required solely for the production of PELLA-DRX. To make the product, the waste is first sent through an autoclave, which kills any pathogens. Next, it goes through a shredder, which reduces its volume by over 90%. Finally, it gets compressed into pellets, which bear no visual clues as to their origins.

Sharps claims it utilizes 100% of the waste it receives, so absolutely none of it ends up in an incinerator or a landfill.

PELLA-DRX is currently being used to make cement, although Sharps foresees it also finding its way into the production of lime and steel. Because it reportedly has a BTU content equal to coal, they also see it being used in the production of power - if they’re suggesting it be burned, however, you have to wonder about all that plastic going up in flames.

5 comments
5 comments
Facebook User
Let\'s create a flow for the home users of medical trash like used needles -- to go online, and find a local drop off spot for their used needles, etc.
windykites
What\'s wrong with needles being sterilized and remanufactured into new syringes?
Jon Davis
Now all we need are adorable little robots with treads and arms to make these into buildings. Pixar was on to something...
Anumakonda Jagadeesh
Good progress in utilising medical waste.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
Karsten Evans
This is burning rubbish.. The autoclave probably burns the rubbish by preheating it and then using the gases produced to increase the temp so the autoclave kills everything and a side effect of that is near total incineration of the waste. how else do you reduce it by 90%.
Just waste incineration by another name.