Our News

A large green bin of shredded plastic and metal waste is shown in three images. On the right is the Ecostery machine that processes the waste.

03 Feb 2026

Biomedical Waste Management in Senegal: A Visit to Dr Sett

Dr Sett means “Doctor Cleanliness” in Wolof. This wordplay resonates with our After the Single Use (AtSU) project. Dr. Sett is the first and only biomedical waste treatment facility in Senegal. Located […]

Bruno Strasser reads his book The Mask while wearing a mask.

09 Dec 2025

Bruno J. Strasser’s The Mask shortlisted for Nature's best science writing 2025

The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air, co-authored by After the Single Use researcher Bruno J. Strasser, has been shortlisted for a leading science writing award. The book has been praised for its richly illustrated, global history of respiratory masks and its timely reflections on how societies navigate risk, protection and public health.

Research team stand on top the dumpsite platform.

09 Dec 2025

Inside Mbeubeuss: a visit to Senegal’s largest dumpsite

A field visit to Mbeubeuss reveals the scale, labour and risks shaping Dakar’s only dumpsite and the presence of biomedical waste in everyday waste streams.

24 Nov 2025

Unravelling the healthcare paradox: tensions in sustainable healthcare

A new reflection from CleanMed Europe 2025 explores the unresolved tensions shaping sustainable healthcare: how we balance patient outcomes, budgets, and planetary health, and who carries the burden of driving change. Read the full piece on why confronting these trade-offs is essential for reimagining healthcare’s future.

The project team members stand together for a group photo at after Bruno's presentation

01 Oct 2025

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.

The Thinker’s Burden sculpture by artist Benjamin Von Wong, displayed outside the Palais des Nations for the duration of the plastics treaty negotiations.

27 Aug 2025

Reflections on the UN Plastics Treaty negotiation from an After the Single Use delegate

At the UN’s Geneva talks, 184 countries failed again to agree a plastics treaty - yet momentum grows for bold, health-centred action against plastic pollution worldwide.

A LEGO® build involving bridges and building connections.

14 Aug 2025

Building Shared Values

Using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, our team explored shared values - building bridges, windows, and boats - to imagine connection, openness, and bravery in reshaping the future of plastics in healthcare together.

The satirical advert for the single-use plastic speculum satirising the pink colour to please women when most doctors are men

06 Aug 2025

“Tinged with a Feminine Pink”: Adverts, Art and Greenwashing

At our Edinburgh workshop, researchers turned frustrations with single-use plastics into satirical adverts, using humour and art to expose hidden harms and greenwashing in healthcare.

Alice Street and Millie Marriott Webb amongst an array of POCTs at the pop-up lab.

07 Nov 2025

Deconstructing Devices at POCT for Scot

Every year at POCT for Scot, global and local Point of Care Test suppliers alike assemble to discuss industry advances and promote their technologies to the delegation of researchers, healthcare and laboratory professionals.

Hands wearing gloves are taking apart medical devices.

18 Dec 2025

Deconstructing Devices at MAE Vienna

At MAE 2025, Alice Street and Millie Marriott Webb’s lab dissected single-use medical plastics, tracing lifecycles and waste to rethink anthropological approaches to devices and environmental impact.

A panel discussion with members of the project team at EAHMH 2025

28 Aug 2025

Pasts, Presents, and Futures of Plastics in Medicine

At EAHMH 2025, team members organised a panel exploring medicine’s shift to plastics, examining disposability, supply chains, waste, and sustainability while rethinking consumer culture and evolving medical care practices.

Photo of Jeremy Greene with a blue background.

24 Jul 2025

Plastics and healthcare: Navigating the balance among access, health, and sustainability

At a WHO workshop, Jeremy Greene outlines the PASS-UP model—a practical framework for cutting single-use plastics in global healthcare.

27 May 2025

Pop-up Exhibition and Reception

The project team are holding a pop-up exhibition exploring the production, circulation, and disposal of single-use medical plastics.

Image of Khoudia Sow with a blue vase behind her.

13 May 2025

15th Scientific Days CRCF/ANRS MIE: Rethinking medical device for reuse, renewal and resilience

At the 15th Scientific Days organised by the Regional Centre for Research and Training in HIV Care (CRCF), Khoudia Sow introduced After the Single Use to an audience of Senegalese,…

A graphic with logos for After the Single Use and SCORAI.

08 Apr 2025

SCORAI Europe Conference 2025: Discarding well? How grassroots waste initiatives advance intersectional justice

Cat Acheson shares research on grassroots waste initiatives and intersectional justice at the 2025 SCORAI Europe Conference.

12 Nov 2024

Levi Symposium: The Value(s) of Disposability in Health Care

At the Levi Symposium, scholars and practitioners explored whether healthcare must trade safety, efficacy, or efficiency for sustainability—or if durable, low-carbon alternatives can achieve all.

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