Mitigating the Environmental Impact of Diabetes Care Waste

Healthcare contributes 4-5% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, yet the environmental burden of chronic disease management remains poorly quantified. In recent years, researchers, practitioners, and patients have raised the question of sustainability in diabetes care due to the constant need for medical devices and single-use products. Daily disease management requires substantial volumes of single-use medical devices, creating significant material flows through healthcare systems. Type 1 diabetes affects approximately 270,000 people in England alone, with prevalence rising considerably over the past three decades. A widespread patient pool, paired with the increasing prevalence of new diagnoses means an increase in medical supply usage and thus medical supply waste. Despite growing awareness, diabetes-care waste lacks systematic quantification from a material flow analysis perspective, limiting our ability to identify reduction pathways.

In response, this research will quantify and characterise material flows from diabetes care in high-income countries, with a particular focus on the UK. It will do this by tracking plastic products and medical devices through supply chains, performing life-cycle assessments to link the flows of these materials to environmental impacts, and mapping diabetes care products onto existing plastics supply chain models that cover ~37,000 process facilities. This systems-level approach extends from fossil fuel feedstocks through manufacturing, distribution, use, and waste management. Qualitative methods will include semi-structured interviews with people living with diabetes to assess awareness of waste management programs, disposal behaviors, and barriers to participation in existing recycling schemes. This work produces high-resolution stock and flow data for diabetes medical supplies at national scale, establishing baseline metrics currently absent from literature.

Timing is critical as NHS England implements a five-year rollout of Hybrid Closed Loop systems for type 1 diabetes, presenting an opportunity to embed sustainability considerations in emerging care pathways. Results enable evidence-based decision-making by multiple stakeholders, such as manufacturers redesigning products, healthcare systems optimizing procurement, policymakers developing waste regulations, and patients making informed choices.