Most medical devices cannot be made from recycled plastics because of the incredibly high standards of quality that are set for medical-use plastics.
Every time plastic goes through the recycling process (getting melted down and re-formed into something new), the quality of the plastic goes down. So, usually, you have to add in “virgin” plastic to any recycled material to keep the quality high enough for whatever application.
But, medical devices need to be REALLY high quality. If you have a bad-quality coke bottle, worst case scenario, you may spill coke on yourself. If you use low-quality plastics for medical purposes, people can LITERALLY die.
So, recycled plastics are not generally used in medical devices.
Note: Using the best material for a medical device, even if it is potentially damaging to the environment, is ALWAYS the morally correct thing to do. Plastics are honestly miracle-materials, and they have made so many lives SO much better. They’ve helped disabled people have more accommodations and better quality medical devices, therefore giving them a better quality of life.
Plastics are heavily abused by corporations looking to maximize profits, but if we just used them responsibly, we could have all of the good and none of the bad.
