Analysis of the Waste Volume and CO₂-Equivalent Caused by the Use of Selected Patch Pumps

The use of tube-free insulin pumps is increasing. To protect the environment, the use of resources and the amount of emissions into the environment should be kept as low as possible when designing these systems. In addition to basic waste avoidance, the composition of the waste produced must be considered.

To compare current tube-free pumps from an ecological standpoint, a tube-free insulin pump with a modular design and two non-modular tube-free pumps were subjected to manual separation, manual sorting, characterization, and mass determination. The annual waste volume of a user was measured, and the recyclability was assessed. The global warming potential (GWP) resulting from extraction of raw materials, energetic utilization of waste, and landfill of the incineration residues was balanced.

For the modular tube-free pump, a total waste volume of 5.5 kg/a (recycling percentage 44.3%) was determined. The non-modular systems generated 4.9 kg/a (recycling percentage 14.6%) and 5.1 kg/a (recycling percentage 16.0%) waste. The product-specific GWP of the modular system was approximately 50% lower than that of the non-modular systems; the packaging-specific GWP was 2.5 times higher. In total, a GWP of 13.6 kg CO₂-equivalent per year could be determined for the modular system and a GWP of 15.5 kg CO₂-equivalent per year for the non-modular systems.

Although the modular micropump has a higher total waste volume, a greater ecological potential can be attributed to it. This is based on the recyclability of the system due to its modularity and the possible reduction of packaging waste.