Sustainable Packaging in the MedTech and Pharmaceutical Industries – Challenges and Opportunities

By Brendan Duggan, Managing Director, INBLEX Plastics Ltd

Countries, communities, organisations, businesses, families, and individuals are increasingly focused on reducing the impact they have on the environment. There are multiple aspects to this drive but one of the main talking points at the moment is packaging. In particular, the use of plastic and other non-sustainable materials in packaging.

While companies across all sectors respond to consumer demand to reduce product packaging, particularly reducing non-biodegradable or non-recyclable packaging, the medical device and pharmaceutical industries face unique challenges. These challenges involve consumer/patient safety.

Of course, safety is a priority in all industries. That importance is amplified in pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing, however, not least because of the strict regulations that exist, particularly in the US and Europe.

So, we now have a situation where consumers, patients, politicians, activists, governments, and companies have a focus and mindset that is more environmentally conscious than ever before – and rightly so. However, they also demand safe medical device and pharmaceutical products that meet all safety regulations – again, rightly so.

How can this be achieved with a sustainable plastic or alternative packaging material? How do you square this circle?

Unique Challenges Faced by the Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Industries

Some of the unique packaging challenges the medical device and pharmaceutical industry currently face include:

• Preventing the contamination of medicines. The reality is that, while there have been advances and innovations in producing new packaging materials, none can perform to the same standard as non-environmentally-friendly plastic. In other words, if you need packaging that prevents contamination, plastic is currently the best – and often only – choice.
• The increasing importance of dose control, something which packaging plays an important role in achieving. One example includes the use of blister packs that contain one dose per blister. Other examples come from innovations in drug delivery. Specifically, as things like nasal sprays, transdermal patches, and injectables continue to improve patient outcomes, they are becoming more in-demand. However, these delivery systems often use non-biodegradable plastic.
• Implementing specialist features on pharmaceutical and medical device products such as features to combat counterfeit medicines or make packaging childproof.

What Does Sustainable Packaging Mean in the Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Sectors?

It is important to note that sustainable packaging is only sustainable if it is also effective. This applies to packaging made from recycled materials, packaging that can be recycled itself, or packaging that is biodegradable.

For example, biodegradable packaging that increases the risk of contamination is not only ineffective, it is not sustainable.

Therefore, packaging in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries is only sustainable if it can, first and foremost, perform as designed and according to regulations.

Sustainable Packaging Opportunities

While the packaging challenges facing the medical device and pharmaceutical industries are significant, there are also opportunities to become more environmentally friendly.

Create an Overarching Sustainability Plan

One thing that companies involved in the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors can do is take a holistic approach. In other words, looking at the manufacturing process overall, not just packaging.

In many cases, this means developing a sustainability plan. A sustainability plan can include things like taking steps to reduce waste as well as more efficiently managing resources and streamlining supply chains.

All these steps will reduce the impact the manufacturing and distribution process has on the environment.

Cross-Product Innovations

Another option is to develop new products and solutions that combine drugs with delivery systems. When this happens, the patient or end user receives one item with one set of packaging rather than two (or more).

This will often require collaboration and partnership arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical device manufacturers, but the benefits of doing so are not just increased sustainability and a reduction in the use of plastic. These additional benefits include improved dose control and greater convenience for the patient, i.e. enhancing the product overall.

Using Environmentally-Friendly Materials

While environmentally-friendly packaging materials are not the complete solution now, they should still be used wherever possible. This includes reducing the use of plastic, replacing paper materials with recycled paper, minimising the amount of ink used on packaging, reducing the number of ink colours used, and moving away from bleaching cardboard and paperboard.

Reducing Energy Use and Investing in Clean Energy

Medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical manufacturers can also invest in clean energy technologies to make their operations more sustainable. This includes solar, wind, and biofuel.

Accelerating the ongoing drive to be more energy efficient is also an important part of the sustainability jigsaw. This includes reducing water use, heating, air conditioning, and ventilation.

Improving OEE

Improving OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) will also help improve sustainability. After all, factories waste energy when the lights are on, but the production line is not running because of a batch changeover, a breakdown, or a quality issue.

Focus on the Entire Lifecycle of Packaging

Focusing on the entire lifecycle of packaging is also important, starting from its raw material state through to the manufacturing process, use, and, ultimately, disposal.

With a thorough understanding of this lifecycle, it should be possible to identify steps that will make packaging more environmentally friendly. An example includes establishing partnerships with companies that convert used plastic packaging into other products.

Research and Development

Of course, it is also important there is continued research and development to create new packaging solutions and new packaging materials. For example, creating biodegradable packaging or eliminating the need for secondary packaging on products.

These solutions and materials must meet the regulatory, quality, and safety demands of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries while also improving sustainability.

Improve Production Processes

Improved sustainability can also come from finding new solutions to the often-conflicting goals of:

1. Making manufacturing facilities more productive; and,
2. Making products more sustainable.

For example, automation technologies and updated processes can reduce batch sizes, enabling production lines to handle a more diverse range of product and business requirements.

However, achieving the ability to effectively and efficiently produce small batch sizes makes it harder to reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing the product, particularly in relation to the consumption of energy.

Make the Most of Serialisation

It is also possible to make a pharmaceutical production facility more sustainable by leveraging the side effects of serialisation. Serialisation is required for product tracking, anti-counterfeiting, and patient safety reasons, but the process of serialisation also gives manufacturers enhanced knowledge of their supply chains.

In other words, they know exactly where products are in the distribution chain. They can then use this information to understand how many more are needed and by when. The sustainability benefit of this is a reduction in instances of over-production, reducing unnecessary packaging use, energy use, and more.

Cleaning Up Supply Chain Stages

Sustainability can also come from optimising supply chains, particularly the stages between the clean operations of manufacturing and dispensing facilities. Between these two endpoints, medical device and pharmaceutical products go through locations where cleanliness is not a priority – warehouses, distribution centres, transport vehicles, etc.

As a result, medical device and pharmaceutical products require additional packaging to protect them as they move through the supply chain.

Therefore, improving the cleanliness of these points in the supply chain will also improve sustainability.

Looking to the Future

While the challenges of making packaging sustainable are significant, they are not insurmountable. This particularly applies if the approach involves innovative solutions, working together, sharing knowledge, and never losing the focus on product quality and patient safety.

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