Medical PVC Recycling Program

The Vinyl Institute of Canada and its members are known and respected for their commitment to innovation, and as such, are continually looking for new technologies to increase sustainability, and to the on-going protection of our environment.

In August 2019, the VIC brought a team of industry experts to meet with Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Plastics Division in Gatineau, Quebec, to present our plan for a Medical PVC Recycling Pilot program. That meeting set in motion the creation of PVC 123, specifically the recycling of oxygen masks, oxygen mask tubing, and intravenous fluid bags, the bulk of which are used in Operating Rooms in hospitals around the world, and where OR’s generate approximately 30% of all hospital waste.

On February 2020, The Vinyl Institute of Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada entered into a formal and voluntary partnership on this recycling initiative, with a view to designing a hospital collection infrastructure which would allow any size hospital to set up their own recycling program in a seamless fashion, and have minimal to no impact on existing work responsibilities for health care staff.

Dr. Ali Abbass of St. Joseph’s Unity Health Centre in Toronto, started a medical device recycling program several years ago with Vinyl Institute of Canada member, Norwich Plastics, one of North America’s most advanced recyclers of flexible PVC, and which many life-saving devices are made from.

Our pilot program ended in March of 2021, and we are happy to report that we are nearing thirty (30) participating hospitals. Although the pilot has ended, please contact us if you wish to participate in the program at info@vinylinstituteofcanada.com .