Blog

event posted showing a surgical face mask in water

01 Jun 2023

The Plastic Pandemic

Rethinking Medical Device Innovation, Use and Disposal for a Circular Economy

Medical waste sits outside a medical facility in Senegal

04 Feb 2024

Clean and Dirty: Hygiene and Medical Waste

Our team at CRCF in Senegal organised a two week workshop for research assistants in the Social Sciences.

07 Nov 2024

History of Science Society Annual Meeting 2024: Plastic Temporalities

At the 2024 HSS Annual Meeting, Jeremy Greene convened the roundtable Plastic Temporalities: Ecologies of Disposability in Science and Medicine, bringing together historians and anthropologists to examine the material histories…

12 Nov 2024

Levi Symposium: The Value(s) of Disposability in Health Care

At the Levi Symposium, scholars and practitioners explored whether healthcare must trade safety, efficacy, or efficiency for sustainability—or if durable, low-carbon alternatives can achieve all.

A graphic with logos for After the Single Use and SCORAI.

08 Apr 2025

SCORAI Europe Conference 2025: Discarding well? How grassroots waste initiatives advance intersectional justice

Cat Acheson shares research on grassroots waste initiatives and intersectional justice at the 2025 SCORAI Europe Conference.

Image of Khoudia Sow with a blue vase behind her.

13 May 2025

15th Scientific Days CRCF/ANRS MIE: Rethinking medical device for reuse, renewal and resilience

At the 15th Scientific Days organised by the Regional Centre for Research and Training in HIV Care (CRCF), Khoudia Sow introduced After the Single Use to an audience of Senegalese,…

27 May 2025

Pop-up Exhibition and Reception

The project team are holding a pop-up exhibition exploring the production, circulation, and disposal of single-use medical plastics.

Photo of Jeremy Greene with a blue background.

24 Jul 2025

Plastics and healthcare: Navigating the balance among access, health, and sustainability

At a WHO workshop, Jeremy Greene outlines the PASS-UP model—a practical framework for cutting single-use plastics in global healthcare.

A panel discussion with members of the project team at EAHMH 2025

28 Aug 2025

Pasts, Presents, and Futures of Plastics in Medicine

At EAHMH 2025, team members organised a panel exploring medicine’s shift to plastics, examining disposability, supply chains, waste, and sustainability while rethinking consumer culture and evolving medical care practices.

Hands wearing gloves are taking apart medical devices.

21 May 2026

Deconstructing Devices at MAE Vienna

At MAE 2025, Alice Street and Millie Marriott Webb’s lab dissected single-use medical plastics, tracing lifecycles and waste to rethink anthropological approaches to devices and environmental impact.

Alice Street and Millie Marriott Webb amongst an array of POCTs at the pop-up lab.

07 Nov 2025

Deconstructing Devices at POCT for Scot

Every year at POCT for Scot, global and local Point of Care Test suppliers alike assemble to discuss industry advances and promote their technologies to the delegation of researchers, healthcare and laboratory professionals.

Four people in hi-vis jackets stand in the foreground with large sacks of plastic waste in a warehouse space.

06 Feb 2026

"Waste & wasting”: Mapping research on waste at the University of Edinburgh

After the Single Use co-organised a University of Edinburgh workshop bringing together researchers from across disciplines to explore waste, waste work, and waste landscapes. The event highlighted shared concerns around value, labour, plastics, pollution, and the infrastructures that shape how waste is understood and managed.

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