Policy & Regulation

The Advocate for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Right-to-Repair Legislation field is crucial for shifting the financial and logistical burden of end-of-life management to manufacturers. EPR frameworks would require producers to manage the entire lifecycle of their products, including providing repair options and ensuring proper disposal of medications. This necessitates developing clear policies that require designing equipment for easy dismantlement and establishing a shared financial mechanism (e.g., a surcharge similar to the PET bottle system) to cover the costs of collection, refurbishment, and disposal of medical devices. The cluster also includes conducting a study to identify "Pain materials" to focus specific circular solutions.

Advocate for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Right-to-Repair Legislation.

 Push for regulations that require manufacturers to manage product lifecycles, provide repair options, and ensure proper end-of-life handling.

• Ensuring proper disposal of medications to prevent environmental contamination.

• Require manufacturers to manage the entire lifecycle of their products, including recycling and disposal.

• Advocates for policies requiring manufacturers to provide repair options for medical devices, including access to replacement parts and manuals.

• Assist the life sciences industry in developing medical-grade plastic recycling standards by providing guidance and conducting audits. (Regulatory & Associations)

• Make a study to identify pain points or rather “Pain materials” – then develop specific circular solutions for those materials.

• Producers need to design by thinking about the end-of-life. Important to designing and making equipment easy to dismantle.

• Establish EPR frameworks where costs and technical solutions for circularity are shared among producers, healthcare providers, and waste management entities.

• Introduce a funding mechanism similar to Switzerland’s PET bottle recycling system, where a surcharge covers the costs of collection, refurbishment, and sustainable disposal of medical devices and laboratory equipment.