Plastics molding and mold making group Westfall Technik Inc. is turning its attention to recycling for the biomedical industry.
The Las Vegas-based company is partnering with Polycarbin to test recycling of single-use scientific plastics that would normally be put in landfills or incinerated due to medical waste compliance regulations.
James O'Brien and Noah Pyles, cofounders of Polycarbin, who have a combined 15 years of laboratory research experience, saw an "immense amount" of single-use plastics that they and their fellow scientists consumed on a daily basis, O'Brien told Plastics News.
O'Brien and Pyles were classmates in the Physician Scientist Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, he said. They left in January after two years in the medical program to pursue Polycarbin full time.
"It was initially just our own initiative to try to make a more sustainable waste management infrastructure," O'Brien said. "It turned into this large market opportunity and almost a moral obligation to tackle this problem."
Polycarbin has a waste management software platform, which, according to its website, helps single-use medical plastics manufacturers create management systems that monitor sustainability goals. It also tracks the regulated medical waste through its product life cycle.