Designing circular and sustainable low-cost, low-weight, high-performance (LLH) products for hospitals – A life cycle assessment of FFP2 mask design configurations

Designing circular and sustainable products for hospitals is challenging, especially for one product group, the low-cost, low-weight, high-performance (LLH) products. This group is specifically sensitive to additional costs, weight, i.e. environmental impacts, or innovative design configurations, i.e. potential performance impairments. The study investigates circular design alternatives for one representative of the LLH group, filtering facepieces of class two (FFP2 masks). Therefor, a cradle-to-grave LCA is performed, investigating six mask and life cycle design configurations. The systems differ in input material (PP, PLA), use phase (single-use, reuse) and end of life (incineration with energy recovery, CCU, composting). Midpoint and endpoint analyses are performed in SimaPro, using ecoinvent and IMPACT World+. The results show that pitfalls lure when designing LLH products, e.g. material-intensive use phase designs. Based on the obtained results we suggest to look for further design alternatives, with an early involvement of stakeholders from various disciplines.