healthcare waste | After Single Use

An advertisement for a plastic glove called "White Knight". The saturated Norwegian advertisement shows a single hand in the glove with annotations about its benefits.

03 Mar 2026

Hand in glove: the history of the disposable glove at HSS 2024

Anne Kveim Lie presented new research on the history of the disposable glove at the History of Science Society Annual Meeting 2024.

A large green bin of shredded plastic and metal waste is shown in three images. On the right is the Ecostery machine that processes the waste.

03 Feb 2026

Biomedical waste management in Senegal: a visit to Dr Sett

Dr. Sett is the first and only biomedical waste treatment facility in Senegal. Located in Sinda, 68 km from Dakar in the Thiès region, it enables public and private medical facilities to manage all their biomedical waste in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Heath(care) derivatives as hazardous waste: New understandings of chemical infrastructures and disease control paradigms in (global) health

Alice Street was part of the panel Health(care) derivatives as hazardous waste at HEAT 2025: Health, Environment, and Anthropology, a conference on planetary health and the environment. This presentation examined how single-use plastics have become a foundational yet increasingly problematic chemical infrastructure within global healthcare.

Research team stand on top the dumpsite platform.

09 Dec 2025

Inside Mbeubeuss: a visit to Senegal’s largest dumpsite

A field visit to Mbeubeuss reveals the scale, labour and risks shaping Dakar’s only dumpsite and the presence of biomedical waste in everyday waste streams.

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,…

24 Nov 2025

Unravelling the healthcare paradox: tensions in sustainable healthcare

A new reflection from CleanMed Europe 2025 explores the unresolved tensions shaping sustainable healthcare: how we balance patient outcomes, budgets, and planetary health, and who carries the burden of driving change. Read the full piece on why confronting these trade-offs is essential for reimagining healthcare’s future.

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.

A rural health centre in Papua New Guinea.

How do hospitals (continue) to matter to anthropologists?

Presentations

At the Medical Anthropology Europe Conference 2025, Alice Street questioned how we might theorise hospitals as more-than-biomedical places and highlighted the environmental damage hospitals cause.

Syringes, packaging and masks: can we do without disposable plastic equipment in hospitals?

Media items

Can hospitals reduce their dependence on disposable plastics? Bruno Strasser contributes to a discussion on the history, risks, and trade-offs behind medical throwaway culture.

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.

Blog posts tagged ‘healthcare waste’

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