Han Buck, master Industrial Design student at TU Delft, is researching how she could design a more sustainable version of the infusion bag for her master graduation project. Infusion bags are a large source of hospital waste and are currently not being recycled. 

Last week, Anne Traa (Vice Director) and Winfried Lange (Key Account Manager / Global Project Manager Medical Plastics) from Wittenburg Group visited the ESCH-R Living Lab at Erasmus MC. Together with Jan Carel Diehl (WP5 lead), Jasper Klasen, and Han Buck, they discussed the progress of Han’s graduation project and explored potential directions for future research. For this project, Erasmus MC and TU Delft work closely together with ESCH-R consortium partner Wittenburg Group, because of their deep knowledge on plastic formulation.

One of Han’s key findings so far is that different hospital departments within the Erasmus MC use a wide variety of infusion bags. However, the most commonly used infusion bags are of the same type, forming a clear hotspot where circular design interventions could be explored. Han will continue her graduation research, shifting her focus from an analytical approach toward the design phase, aiming to create a more sustainable infusion bag.

A particularly striking moment during the meeting was the realization that each of all attendees views the issue through their own professional lens. Han’s outsider perspective allowed her to ask exactly the kind of questions that made them all stop and reflect—“Why have we been doing it this way for so long?”