Hey but if I pay, which some do through insurance, for that vial, do I get a recycle discount :)?
Recycling is a good thing, but, who the heck is doing all that and who is paying for that recycling of used vials?
Nobody talks about the logistics. It seems like a valid subject that being lack of raw materials, production pipeline, and power requirements.
War on a virus is like any other war: logistics.
Definitely some huge logistics challenges involved. Vials and syringes from vaccinations typically go into the sharps container for pick-up by a medical waste company. The normal process from there would be to autoclave the waste (decontaminate and sanitize it) with high pressure, high temperature steam, then sort out what can be recycled (e.g. plastics you melt down) from what can’t (e.g. needles).
In recent years, some startups have been looking at alternatives to vials and needles like microneedle skin patches to deliver medicines. Such patches would have components that rapidly break down outside their packaging and could safely be tossed in the trash after use. This would drastically reduce the need for vials and syringes and drastically cut overall waste. It would also be a lot safer for sanitation workers as some careless people or people without access to proper medical waste disposal (think workers in some private prisons, small clinics, etc.) end up tossing sharps in the regular trash.
I wouldn’t want to be the trash guy having to pick up garbage at the clinic that tosses random needs in there.