Eloïse Richards' AAHM 2026 presentation explored how disposable medical devices became associated with safety, efficiency and convenience, and what histories of resistance might offer for rethinking healthcare practices today.

Millie Marriott Webb presented research on the human and environmental impacts of single-use medical plastics at the student-led SoMA 2026 Medical Anthropology and the Technocene conference.

A reflection on the first meeting of the Infrastructures of Reuse cluster, exploring three historical sources that reveal how sterility, labour, and disposability became embedded in modern healthcare.

After the Single Use researcher Jeremy Greene presented at the History of Science Society Annual Meeting as part of the panel ‘Sciences of Waste / Wastes of Science’.

At the Medical Anthropology Europe Conference 2025, Alice Street questioned how we might theorise hospitals as more-than-biomedical places and highlighted the environmental damage hospitals cause. 

Akhilesh Bonthu and Nanda Kishore Kannuri presented research on the anthropology of plastics and medical waste at a national seminar exploring anthropology’s role in addressing contemporary global challenges.

What hidden stories lie behind the journey of a single-use medical device? How can we use ethnographic approaches and stakeholder collaboration to rethink sustainability in healthcare?