Reducing medicine cups is good! But what about the rest?
Home/ Knowledge/ Reducing medicine cups is good. But what about the rest?
Plastilose cellulose medicine cups
Sustainability on the nursing ward

Reducing is good. But what about the rest?

Using fewer medicine cups is the smartest first step. But getting rid of them entirely is almost never possible. For every cup that remains there is Plastilose: grown from bacterial cellulose, with 96% less CO2 than a plastic cup.

We are all for reducing

Use fewer cups first. We fully agree.

The Dutch platform Samen de zorg vergroenen developed a strong intervention to cut the use of medicine cups, for example by making a cup patient-bound and reusing it. That delivers the biggest environmental win and we recommend every ward to start there.

Read the original intervention: Reduce the use of medicine cups, Samen de zorg vergroenen (in Dutch).

The numbers behind reducing

What reducing saves

Source: environmental analysis by Samen de zorg vergroenen, calculated per 30ml cup.

1,000 fewer plastic cups saves
11.2 kg CO2-eq
about 57 km by car
1,000 fewer paper cups saves
1.5 kg CO2-eq
about 8 km by car

Reducing has its limits

In practice it is rare to leave out every cup. At many moments a cup is simply needed and reuse is not an option:

  • with crushed medication
  • with medication in a drink
  • at moments where hygiene rules out reuse

That is exactly where our addition comes in: replace the cup you cannot reduce with Plastilose.

96%
less CO2 than a plastic cup
grown from bacterial cellulose, based on a conservative calculation
Plastilose medicine cups made of bacterial cellulose

The Plastilose 30ml medicine cup: performs like plastic, grown from bacterial cellulose.

The Plastilose addition

What replacing saves

For every plastic cup you cannot reduce or reuse, replace it with Plastilose. Emissions per cup then drop by 96%. Our cups are also biodegradable and lower in emissions than paper cups.

CO2 of plastic cups
per 1,000 cups (approx. 57 km by car)
11.2 kg
CO2 of paper cups
per 1,000 cups (approx. 8 km by car)
1.5 kg
CO2 of Plastilose cups
per 1,000 cups (approx. 2 km by car), 96% less than plastic
0.45 kg
Plastilose cellulose cups detail

CO2 emissions per 30ml cup

Per cupPer 1,000 (km by car)
Plastic cup (source: guide)0.0112 kgapprox. 57 km
Paper cup (source: guide)0.0015 kgapprox. 8 km
Plastilose cup0.00045 kgapprox. 2 km
The heart of the story

Replacing captures almost the entire win of stopping

Stopping entirely with 1,000 plastic cups saves 11.2 kg CO2. Replacing them with Plastilose saves 10.75 kg. You keep 96% of the win, while you carry on working exactly as before.

11.2
Stop entirely
100% saving, often impossible in practice
10.75
Replace with Plastilose
96% saving, suitable for every moment
For everything you cannot reduce, Plastilose still captures 96% of the maximum CO2 win. Nothing given up on clinical workability, almost everything gained on environmental impact.
A nurse holding the Plastilose medicine cup

Already in use in practice

Maasstad Ziekenhuis is our first Founding Partner and is starting with plastic-free medicine cups made of bacterial cellulose. Reducing and replacing are put to work together on the ward.

Read the Maasstad Ziekenhuis case study

How do we arrive at 96%?

We compare one Plastilose cup with the reference value for a plastic 30ml cup (0.0112 kg CO2-eq) from the environmental analysis by Samen de zorg vergroenen. The Plastilose figure comes from our own cradle-to-gate life cycle analysis, which compares low-temperature fermentation on agricultural residual streams with conventional polypropylene production. The result is a deliberately conservative 96% lower emission per cup.

We use cautious assumptions for raw materials, production and end of life. The real saving is expected to be higher. That keeps the claim defensible toward procurement and sustainability teams.

Combine both steps. Reduce first where you can, then replace the rest with Plastilose. Run them at different times so you can read the effect of each step separately from your purchasing data.

Curious about your own saving per ward?

Open the impact calculator

Deze website gebruikt cookies voor een optimale ervaring. Lees onze privacyverklaring voor meer informatie