Digital Health in a Circular Economy

A central objective of DiCE is to extend a product’s lifetime in the healthcare industry. The project will focus on testing and piloting solutions for a product’s end-of-life, taking into consideration the design, state of the art refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling technology.

The product innovations developed by the project across eco-design, collection, and reverse logistics will be implemented, tested, and demonstrated in five healthcare systems through community-engaged pilots in Norway, Belgium, Slovenia, Spain, and Germany.

DURATION: 2022 – 2026

SCOPE: Europe

FOCUS AREA: Resource Circularity

FUNDED BY: European Union’s Horizon Europe programme

1664746944249
20 organisations from 9 countries

To handle digital health waste

Creating a broad partnership with industry, academia,
and non-profits, DiCE aims to support the transition from a fragmented and linear “take-make-waste” business model towards a circular and sustainable one, allowing the reuse of products and recovery of components and raw materials.

With a truly holistic solution that involves all industry stakeholders as well as end-users, they will be focusing on four products, representing different issues: an ePaper label, a smart wearable sensor, a smart pill box, and an endo-cutter used in surgical procedure.

Comprehensive yet flexible approach

Tackling every step of the device’s life cycle

Clever circular design
to leverage circularity possibilities early in the life cycle of the devices
New technological solutions for improved logistics
including novel digital collection boxes, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling
Behavioural changes and awareness for collection
both from B2B and B2C perspectives
Introducing the circularity approach for digital health devices
through in-depth sustainability assessment on environmental, economic, and social level, environmental technology verification (ETV) feasibility assessment
A comprehensive set of policy recommendations, standards and best practices
to promote uptake and replication of the DICE results and outcomes in the wider industry

Partner Organizations