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Recycled content has become an increasingly important part of healthcare packaging sustainability strategies. But for sterile medical device packaging, putting recycled material back into the package is not as simple as adding it to a conventional plastic stream.

A collaborative project involving Coloplast, Impact Plastics, and Placon, is exploring a potential path forward using post-industrial regrind (PIR) PETG, a viable option that is gaining traction in the medical packaging industry. The team shared its findings during thePACKout 2026.

The goal is to capture PETG scrap generated during thermoforming, return it to the material stream, and use it in a new package rather than diverting it to another application.

Jennifer Lauderback, director of business development (medical packaging) at Impact Plastics, helped initiate the project after learning about the environmentally preferable purchasing standards and waste criteria for Kaiser Permanente, a non-profit health care organization.

“What stood out to me was that products needed to meet two of [Kaiser Permanente’s] eight waste criteria — and two of those criteria said recycled materials should be used in medical packaging,” she says. “Obviously, there was a disconnect, because recycled material is not currently being used in any sterile packaging because of the need for traceability.”

That disconnect prompted Lauderback to consider whether post-industrial recycled (PIR) material could provide a way to bring recycled content into the medical packaging stream while maintaining the controls required for sterile applications.

She began to mull over a possible solution: Why not bury PIR in a core and leverage that circularity while preserving those critical features for forming, sealing, and sterility?

Keeping PETG in the loop

Lauderback pitched the idea to Chris Kelley, senior packaging engineer at Coloplast Interventional Urology, who secured the company’s approval to move forward. Ryan Shook, technical sales manager at Placon, also joined the project, providing samples for testing.

The PIR used in the project originates with virgin PETG rollstock supplied by Impact Plastics to Placon. When Placon thermoforms a tray, the edge trim, or “skeleton,” is collected, reground, and returned to Impact Plastics to be incorporated into new rollstock.

The resulting sheet uses an A/B/A construction, with PIR PETG sandwiched between two virgin PETG layers. PIR makes up 70% of the structure with 15% virgin material in each outer layer.

Keeping the PIR in the core also means it does not contact the medical device.

For Lauderback, the significance of the approach is that material that would typically leave the medical packaging supply chain can instead be captured and returned to it.

Traceability is key

Introducing recycled content into a sterile barrier system adds another layer of scrutiny to the material supply chain. For Coloplast, demonstrating where the PIR comes from and how it is controlled throughout the process is essential to moving the project forward.

“Our hurdle is that we have an ISO 11607 standard that specifies all the requirements for terminally sterilized barrier packaging systems,” says Kelley. “You must be able to know and control the source history and traceability of all materials, especially recycled materials.”

The partners designed the process around that requirement. Batch and lot numbers follow the material from Impact Plastics, where it is extruded, to Placon, where it is thermoformed, and back to Impact Plastics after thermoforming.

“If you have a recall or failure on a tray, it can be traced back through the thermoformer to the resin — basically to the pellet,” notes Lauderback.

The approach also has a sustainability advantage: rather than treating thermoforming scrap as a waste stream, the material can potentially remain within the same product and supply chain.

Early testing shows promise

Initial testing examined whether the PIR-containing material could be formed, sealed, and transported like its virgin-material counterpart.

“We learned the material with PIR in the middle can be sealed to the same Tyvek lid with the adhesive coating we’ve used for years at the same parameters we’ve been sealing at,” says Kelley.

The team also subjected formed trays containing a marketed medical device to sterilization and simulated distribution testing. After ASTM D4169 and ISTA 3A distribution testing, the device remained adequately protected, according to Kelley.

For Shook, thermoforming results were similarly encouraging.

“From a forming and processing standpoint you can’t tell the difference,” he says. “It just involves additional documentation for capturing lot traceability and material segregation.”

Sustainability opportunity in the works

The project has not yet completed a lifecycle assessment, so Kelley is not putting a specific carbon-reduction figure on the approach. What he can share is that Coloplast has set a goal of net-zero emissions by 2045 and a 10% reduction in Scope 3 emissions per product by 2030. Keeping existing PETG in circulation could offer one avenue for reducing the fossil-fuel inputs associated with producing new material.

The next step in the project is regulatory engagement. Coloplast is beginning work on a formal pre-submission with the FDA.

Source

- Plastics Today (2026-10-19) - Original article: Can Recycled PETG be Used in Sterile Medical Packaging? - https://www.plasticstoday.com/medical/can-recycled-petg-be-used-in-sterile-medical-packaging-