March 2, 2026
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Important points:
- Plastic pollution is associated with chronic diseases, and current disease management practices increase plastic waste.
- Health professionals can be leaders in reducing plastic emissions.
When we become doctors, the first thing we do is take the oath, which is one of the guiding principles for everyone in medicine: First, do no harm.
But if we were doing something every day that, without realizing it, caused harm through downstream health effects, we would want to improve it.
This is how I have been thinking about the consumption of medical plastics.
Climate change and plastic toxicity are both major contributors to the ‘polycrisis’. Medicine is closely related to both.
The use of plastics in healthcare is increasing exponentially. Medical advances such as dialysis have made us dependent on medical plastics, but like the rest of society, there is also a lot of unnecessary use.
We already know that plastic production accounts for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions. Science is now beginning to reveal the profound impact that plastic has on our health. The healthcare industry is one of the largest consumers of plastics, especially single-use products. We need to examine our overconsumption and start finding strategies to reduce the harm in how we serve our communities.
problem
The healthcare industry contributes approximately 9% of national greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for 27% of global greenhouse gas emissions attributable to healthcare, despite serving only 4% of the world’s population.
The manufacturing, transportation, use, and disposal of medical devices contributes to 70% of healthcare greenhouse gas emissions calculations. Medical plastics fall into this category.
The Healthcare Plastic Recycling Council reports that the U.S. healthcare system processes approximately 14,000 tons of waste per day, 25% of which is plastic. That means we throw away about 7 million pounds of plastic every day. To reduce our carbon footprint, we need to look to reduce our plastic footprint.
recycling is not the answer
Plastics come from fossil fuels and petrochemicals. As we sell us a world of convenience where everything is wrapped in plastic, the industry has tripled its plastic production and is on track to outpace coal greenhouse gas emissions.
We’ve long believed that recycling would keep this production level sustainable, but only about 5% of plastics are recycled in the United States. The rest goes to landfills, where it becomes trash or is incinerated. This is like our “red bag” or biohazardous waste, which spews toxins into the air.
Plastic does not decompose. It just breaks down into microplastics and nanoplastics. All of our dialysis waste will still be around in some form hundreds or even thousands of years from now.
Health effects
Plastic is present everywhere on the planet and in every organ of the human body. We are now partly plastic. We are rapidly discovering how these tiny pieces of plastic and the chemicals attached to them contribute to nearly every chronic disease.
Many of these plastics are known carcinogens, neurotoxins, and endocrine disruptors. A steady stream of research is discovering a correlation between plastic pollution in our bodies and an increased risk of cancer, asthma, diabetes, obesity, autism, other neurodevelopmental disorders, infertility, heart disease, and poor pregnancy outcomes.
Kidney disease, enlarged prostates, and increases in bladder and testicular cancer are all linked to plastic exposure. According to a study published in The Lancet in 2025, the number of adults living with chronic kidney disease has more than doubled since 1990, reaching approximately 800 million people worldwide. Researchers are studying how much CKD may be caused by continued exposure to plastics. A meta-analysis by O’Callaghan et al., also published in 2025, focused on microplastics in kidney disease, linking increased plastic pollution to increased kidney disease. The authors state, “The threat of microplastic contamination within the human urinary tract is rapidly emerging. …The cytotoxic effects of microplastics, along with their ability to induce inflammation, reduce cell viability, and disrupt signaling pathways, have been demonstrated, raising serious public health concerns related to bladder cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic urinary tract infections, and incontinence.”
The chemicals in plastics have been studied for decades, and study after study shows the toxicity of our continued exposure.
what can you do
Sustainability teams around the world are looking at ways to reduce plastic consumption without changing patient care.
For example, gloves are the single-use plastic product with the highest volume in the medical field. Observational studies show that we use gloves unnecessarily too often. We need to learn to practice proper hand hygiene when gloves are needed and when gloves are needed, or even better. International “take off the gloves” efforts are educating us and beginning to reduce this waste.
Consider other fruits that can be easily achieved, such as a pill instead of an IV medication, a paper pill cup and a paper water cup to take the pill. Disposable plastic forks in the break room can be replaced with reusable forks.
If you look around you, there are many initiatives to reduce plastic.
The dialysis industry relies on plastic to keep patients alive. When considering which dialysis method is best for a patient, incorporate environmental and plastic footprint into the decision-making tree. O’Callaghan et al. examined dialysis fluid containers (canisters, flexible bags, storage containers) and found that container choice was associated with differences in environmental impact. Canisters have a bigger impact on the planet than bags. Storage containers were the least affected because they contained less plastic.
At home, hemodialysis using concentrated dialysate can reduce supplies by up to two-thirds compared to peritoneal dialysis. However, if a patient uses PD, point-of-care PD fluids may be generated from tap water and on-demand fluid cartridges may be used. This eliminates the need to manufacture, ship, and use off-the-shelf heavy bags.
Dialysis is one of the biggest consumers of plastic in healthcare, but there are many leaders working with industry to make it more sustainable. Further details regarding this will be published in the near future.
Think of it this way. If we consume less plastic, patients will need dialysis less often, which in turn will lead to less plastic consumption. Of course, it’s not that simple. But all of us in healthcare can reduce our consumption by considering which plastics we no longer need, what we can reduce and reuse, and where we can replace them with different materials. All of this is good for us, our patients, our planet and, in many cases, our bottom line.
What can you do?
For more information:
Dr. Bridget Lee is an emergency physician who lives in Boston and works at NeighborHealth in Boston. Outside of my clinical work, I work on sustainability in healthcare with a focus on plastic reduction. She regularly speaks to both medical and community organizations about the growing crisis of plastics and plastic toxicity. She is an active member of the Network of Physicians and Scientists Working on Plastics and Health (P-SNAP). She can be reached at bridgetelee@gmail.com.
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References:
- Beyond plastic. The real truth about plastic recycling rates in the United States. https://www.beyond plastics.org/publications/us-plastics-recycling-rate. Published May 4, 2022. Accessed February 25, 2026.
- GBD 2023 Chronic Kidney Disease Collaborator. Lancet. 2025;doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01853-7.
- Health care without harm. Healthcare Climate Footprint Report. https://global.noharm.org/resources/health-care-climate-footprint-report. Published September 2019. Accessed February 25, 2026.
- Healthcare Plastic Recycling Council. Characterization of hospital waste. https://www.hprc.org/resources/hospital-waste-characterization/. Accessed February 25, 2026.
- Landrigan PJ et al lancet. 2025; doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01447-3.
- Martinez-Chains R, et al. I have J kidney disease. 2025;doi:10.1053/j.ajkd.2025.06.009.
- O’Callaghan L, et al. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2025;doi:10.1038/s41370-024-00709-3.
- OECD. Global plastics outlook: Greenhouse gas emissions from primary plastics. Processed by Our World in Data. 2022.
- Rizan C, et al. JR Soc Med. 2020;doi:10.1177/0141076819890554.
- Selvai S, et al. How the U.S. healthcare system is contributing to climate change. Commonwealth Fund. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/explainer/2022/apr/how-us-health-care-system-contributes-climate-change. Published April 19, 2022. Accessed February 25, 2026.
Disclosure: Mr. Lee has not reported any relevant financial disclosures.
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