Episode 062 | June 26, 2023 | 27:46
Guest: Frederik van Deurs, Henrik Alfredsson (Frost Pharma)
Published: June 26, 2023
Duration: 27:46
Note: Transcript noted
Description
In this Sustainable Healthcare Podcast episode, the host, Frederik van Deurs, CEO of Green Innovation Group, interviews Henrik Alfredsson, a chemist at Frost Pharma, about his company’s sustainable solution called WoodSafe.
The conversation focuses on reducing emissions in the healthcare industry, particularly through sustainable waste management. The speakers discuss the challenges facing the industry and the potential for innovative solutions like WoodSafe to reduce environmental impact.
Full transcript
About this transcript
This transcript was automatically generated and may contain inaccuracies, typos, or mistranslations. Episodes recorded before 2024 were transcribed by an on-site model and may have a higher error rate. The content reflects the original conversation to the best of our ability. For the authoritative version, please listen to the audio episode.
The three biggest plastic producers in the hospital are number one gloves, number two aprons and number three is the waste containers. If we just could start to do what we can on those three, we will actually achieve a major reduction in usage of plastic. The bottom line is the solutions are available and it is just time to implement and start to deliver.
Hello and welcome to the Sustainable Healthcare Podcast. Today I have Henrik with me who is going to present a product called WoodSafe — a disposable bucket for medicinal waste. If the healthcare sector was a country, it would be emitting 4-5% of global emissions. One of the areas where we need to reduce emissions is the incineration of medicinal waste. Henrik, welcome to the show.
I am Henrik Alfredsson, working at Frost Pharma — a Nordic specialty pharma company. We have been working with pharmacies in the Nordic sector for a long time. My focus is sustainable solutions. I am a chemist by background. The WoodSafe product is actually a biocomposite — a mix of two totally different types of material to create a unique feature.
It started with us working with the pharmacies and having dosing aids. In my previous job, these were produced in China with fossil-based oil and transported across the world. We thought we must be able to make this in a smarter way for the climate. So we started producing these locally in Sweden using bioplastics — a mix of cornstarch and plastic. We took away a lot of plastic waste around the product and made them recyclable. All major pharmacy chains in Sweden are using them today.
In the dialogue with the pharmacies, we realized that there are a lot of waste containers given out by the pharmacies that are 100% fossil-based plastic. These yellow bins you see everywhere from tattoo salons up to surgery departments at big hospitals. Only in Sweden we estimate there are about four million buckets going into combustion every year, from half a litre up to 50 litres.
We got in contact with Stora Enso — one of the biggest forest owners in Europe. Their biocomposite department helped us develop the moulds. The main component is sawdust. Stora Enso has a lot of sawdust, which is really residual waste — it cannot even be burned because it is like flour. After two years and a number of patents on how to mould and design the waste containers, we have a series of products from half a litre up to 50 litres. They are all certified for transportation and safety.
The good thing is that it reduces CO2 emissions by over 50% from a life cycle perspective. If a hospital takes a yellow plastic bucket and burns it at the incineration plant, that emits one unit of CO2. Alternatively, a sawdust-based bucket emits around half a unit. So it is an end-of-life reduction of around half.
We saw the latest IPCC reports and it is frustrating. We actually have the solutions. It is just a matter of starting to talk and making plans. The three biggest plastic producers in the hospital are gloves, aprons and waste containers. If we just do what we can on those three, we will achieve a major reduction in plastic use.
Since this is a totally new material to introduce a biocomposite waste container to tenders — that is where the big usage comes from in healthcare — we have lots of discussions: how do you compare yellow fossil-based plastic containers versus biocomposite? Do you put the money weight on it or the CO2 weight? The way forward has been to add a renewable category. In most upcoming tenders in Sweden they have a normal plastic category and a renewable category.
For a normal hospital in Stockholm, we will reduce CO2 by 30 to 40 tons per year by just changing from a yellow bin to a brown bin. Everything else stays the same — same handling, same disposal, same combustion. Sawdust is not expensive, so this is a very cost-effective way to reduce CO2.
The majority of bins today are produced in Southern Europe from virgin oil, transported by truck to the Nordics. The average weight on the bigger bins is around seven to eight kilos. Over 50%, up to 55% of the waste is the bin itself. We are using a lot of oil and at the end of the day we are burning more bins than waste.
The patents protect the design and the moulding process. The material is harder than plastic but not so flexible — you need openings and lids produced in a different way. Stora Enso is far ahead on biocomposite. The good thing for the climate is that we are opening up this market. We have also opened up how tenders should look — with a parallel renewable category so new entrants do not have to compete with existing products on price directly.
In Sweden there are 10-15 different tender bodies (regions). In Norway it is four regions, Finland five. There is a good collaborative initiative where these regions share sustainability practices in tenders.
Big users we can name: AstraZeneca, now using WoodSafe in Sweden and the UK. Octiva, very keen on sustainability work. Hospitals like Danderyd and Karolinska in Stockholm. The biggest pharmacy chain, Apoteket-AB, has switched to WoodSafe. We need these early movers.
How fast can you roll this out? We have a plan. The raw material is no problem — lots of sawdust. It is a matter of scaling up production units. We have identified moulding sites in the UK so we can produce locally. The energy mix in Sweden makes a lot of sense to produce here.
Henrik, thank you for being here. Contact at woodsafes.green. Thanks to all our listeners.