After the Single Use is a global research collaboration rethinking healthcare’s reliance on disposable medical technologies. Bringing together anthropologists, historians, artists, and public health researchers across eight countries, the project explores the social, environmental, and historical dimensions of single-use plastics in healthcare. Through interdisciplinary research and creative engagement, it aims to imagine and build more circular, sustainable healthcare futures.
At HSS 2026, two linked Plastic Amnesias panels explored how evidence of plastic harms, reusable technologies and material alternatives has been repeatedly obscured or forgotten across medicine and global health.
In June 2026, Eloïse Richard and Bruno Strasser presented ‘Toxic Asepsis: Chemical Sterilization and the Rise of Disposable Medical Devices in the 20th Century’ at AAHM.
A new article shares findings from CRCF’s ongoing ethnographic research into plastic and biomedical waste management at Fann Hospital in Dakar, Senegal.
Bruno Strasser joined the New Books Network podcast to discuss the history of respiratory masks and the changing ideas of health, risk and responsibility surrounding them.
How and why have disposable plastics been valued in global healthcare and what examples exist of alternative paths not taken?
How are disposable medical technologies produced, transported, consumed, and discarded, and what relations and inequities are generated across their lifecycles?
How are researchers, policymakers, activists, engineers, and designers working together to build sustainable healthcare solutions?
