material culture | After Single Use

After the Single Use researchers stand together in front of a presentation screen in a conference room.

The Plastic Hospital: How Healthcare Learned to Throw Things Away

Reflections on the 2025 European Association for the History of Medicine and Health conference, where project members organised a panel and launched two new books, Bruno J. Strasser introduced The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air and Anne Kveim Lie and Jeremy Greene launched Medicine on a Larger Scale: Global Histories of Social Medicine.

Five researchers from After the Single Use stand in front of a projector screen in a conference room.

01 Oct 2025

The Plastic Hospital: After the Single Use panel at EAHMH 2025

After the Single Use researchers convened a panel at EAHMH 2025, exploring the histories and infrastructures of medical disposability.

Rows of different lightbulbs in the Energise Gallery.

Contemporary Technology Collecting

Blog posts

How can contemporary collecting shape our research on single-use plastics while guiding ethical curation, museum collaboration, and future preservation?

A plastic syringe lies next to other plastic medical waste including a enteral feeding bottle

Why are plastic syringes not being recycled?

Academic publications

Billions of plastic syringes end up in waste, fuelling a hidden environmental crisis. The technology to promote safe recycling already exists - if the healthcare sector can move beyond stigma to embrace these solutions.

Team members workshopping the factors leading to the disposability of X-rays on a busy table with lots of papers and laptops.

Contingencies: Researching Disposability in Healthcare through Historical Methods

Blog posts

How did single-use devices become the norm in healthcare - and what paths were lost along the way? Our "Contingencies" workshop explored history, possibilities, and alternative futures.

Professor Anne Kveim Lie talking in an academic setting with three figures in the background.

01 Jun 2025

Norwegian health publication ‘Dagens Medisin’ feature After the Single Use

Anne Kveim Lie spoke to Norwegian health publication ‘Dagens Medisin’ about disposable medical equipment, healthcare waste, and the growing need for systemic change.

Blog posts tagged ‘material culture’