From bottle to face visor
On July 10, Liesbeth van Tongeren, Alderman for Energy Transition and Sustainability in The Hague, handed over the first 100 face shields made out of fully recycled PET to Carla van de Wiel, board chairman at the Haga hospital in The Hague. These are the first fully recycled plastic visors used in a hospital in the Benelux.
The face shields have been developed in The Hague as a new plastics value case for the PlastiCity project. The partners in The Hague have made contact with Leendert-Jan Doornbos from the Green team of the Haga hospital. They established further cooperation with Reprintable, a 3D printing company from The Hague, which found and printed a number of suitable designs via an open source model. After extensive testing for wearing comfort, protection against splatter transmission and hygiene, one out of the three prototypes was selected for further production.
All parts of the visors are made from recycled PET. Despite the plunche in the recycled plastic market, the masks can be developed and manufactured at the same price level of the traditional visors purchased by the hospital. When production volumes increase, we expect the cost and the price to even drop a bit.
This is one first step to make the hospital's plastic chain more sustainable. Together with the PlastiCity project, the hospital will carry out an internal research into the existing plastic products their type, nature and qualities. It will also make an assessment of which plastics can be offered for recycling. At the same time, the hospital will identify which products can be made from recycled plastic. Based on this research, the plastic chain in and outside of the hospital will be made more sustainable.