The future of healthcare supply chains will not be defined by incremental waste reduction but by a fundamental shift in how materials, products, and resources are designed, used, and recovered.
Principles of the circular economy are beginning to take hold across the healthcare industry. As technologies and business models around circularity have matured, the payback for healthcare now expands beyond sustainability goals to include new revenue streams, reduced waste, increased operational efficiencies, and improved supply chain resilience.
Take-make-dispose models historically dominated healthcare supply chains, while single-use plastics revolutionized healthcare by reducing the risk of cross-contamination and hospital-acquired infections as sterile, disposable instruments became the gold standard. Cheap virgin plastics have also historically been the most economical and convenient option.
Today, circular models in healthcare are disrupting traditional linear supply chains. This is a topic of growing concern and interest for health systems and consumers alike.
Catalyst by Wellstar’s recent patient study tells us that addressing this challenge is a core patient concern as well: 61% of Wellstar’s respondents ranked waste reduction efforts (e.g., improved recycling and reduced use of disposables) as the most critical area for sustainability.
Catalyst by Wellstar is a limited partner/investor in VoLo Earth Ventures, a clean tech investment fund I co-founded and serve as CFO. I recently was at SXSW to discuss this topic with Wellstar Health, bringing a long history in the healthcare industry
Polycarbin, a VoLo Earth portfolio company, epitomizes this trend by pioneering a closed-loop system for biomedical plastics, transforming laboratory waste into high-quality, lower-carbon lab consumables. The platform enables a circular supply chain by collecting used lab plastics and integrating waste management with procurement. With an emphasis on evidence-based sustainability, Polycarbin provides labs with third-party verified impact data, backed by an ISO 14040/14044-compliant life cycle assessment (LCA), so labs can track and measure their progress with confidence.
The Economic Case for Circularity
Polycarbin’s success underscores a fundamental shift in how healthcare systems perceive waste. Initially, the company assumed its core value proposition would be supplying cost-effective, lower-carbon lab consumables. However, demand for its waste collection service surged faster than anticipated. Hospitals and research institutions weren’t just looking for sustainable procurement, they also needed an economically viable, environmentally friendly way to get rid of waste. Polycarbin now provides recycling as a service for a breadth of customers.
What Makes Circularity Work in Healthcare?
Healthcare has unique barriers to circular adoption. In many cases, error margins in healthcare are too high-risk to introduce experimental materials or methods. Many hospitals also require a 1:1 replacement of supplies, limiting opportunities for alternative materials. If a procedure demands absolute predictability, why introduce a non-predictable option?
Yet, startups are beginning to establish models that change this equation and service key bottlenecks and needs for healthcare players.
The change is beginning; early adopters of Polycarbin’s solutions alone, for example, include the National Institute for Health, Biogen, Genentech, UC Berkeley, the Broad Institute, Johns Hopkins, and Weill Cornell.
The Future of Circular Healthcare Supply Chains
As circular innovations scale, the industry has moved beyond sustainability as a compliance goal and toward circularity as a competitive advantage that lowers costs, builds resilience, and unlocks entirely new business models. This trend aligns with the broader reimagination of secure, domestic, resilient supply chains across industries.
Innovations for circularity are maturing across the value chain. Examples include:
● Biofabricated and self-healing medical supplies
● On-site nano-recycling
● Microbial waste processing
● AI-powered waste prediction and coordination
● Innovative packaging solutions for transport
The reality is that long-term transformation happens when economic incentives drive decisions. The same philosophy underpins VoLo Earth’s investment strategy. So, much like the energy transition as a whole, healthcare’s pivot toward circular systems is gaining momentum, driven by economic necessity, technological breakthroughs, and shifting market expectations. Institutions that embrace this shift early are shaping a future of efficient, secure and high-performing healthcare operations.
