METSPITALS Project

Postdoctoral chair in the circular economy of materials and metals

The METSPITALS project is part of the research conducted within the Circular Economy Chair.

Quantity of medical waste produced in Europe is ~ 2.6 kg/bed/day.
Since 2020, B2-type hospital waste (cutting, piercing, blunt and/ or infectious) produced by hospitals in Wallonia has significantly increased, rising from 6.945 tonnes to 8.579 tonnes.
The Critical Raw Materials Act (May 2024) aims to establish benchmarks for 2030 throughout the value chain and will have an impact on the medical sector.
If the global healthcare sector were a country, it would be the 5th GHGs emitter.

Kicked off in November 2024, the METSPITALS Project has 3 main objectives:

Highlight the presence of critical and precious metals in medical devices.
Highlight the lack of circularity of critical and precious metals in “single-used” medical devices.
Assessing solutions for the safe collection and recycling of precious and critical metals, in particular in partnership with specialist recycling companies.