Biodegradable medical gowns produce harmful gases

Biodegradable medical gowns are designed to be more environmentally friendly than traditional gowns, but actually produce harmful greenhouse gases
, according to a new study published Dec.
20 in the Journal of Clean Production.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of single-use plasticized medical gowns, both conventional and biodegradable, has surged
.
Landfills are now
everywhere.

Because biodegradable robes decompose faster than traditional robes, it is widely considered to be a more environmentally friendly option that takes up less space and has fewer
long-term emissions from landfills.

This wisdom can be wrong
.

"There's no silver bullet for this problem," said
Fengqi You, a professor of energy systems engineering at Cornell University.

"Plastinated conventional medical gowns take many years to decompose, while biodegradable medical gowns degrade faster, but they produce gas emissions, such as added methane and carbon dioxide, faster
than conventional medical gowns in landfills," said You, a senior researcher at Cornell University's Atkinson Center for Sustainable Development.
"Maybe the traditional dress isn't that bad
either.
"

According to the study, led by Xiang Zhao, a doctoral student at Cornell University, producing biodegradable gowns is 11%
more ecotoxic than traditional alternatives.

The researchers found that adopting landfill gas capture and utilization processes in biodegradable sanitary landfills could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9.
79 percent, reduce the use of life cycle landfills by nearly 49 percent, and save at least 10 percent of fossil resources
by using on-site cogeneration.

Traditional robes are environmentally and socially sustainable because they are 14% less toxic to humans, 10% less greenhouse gas emissions, and nearly 10%
less toxic to fresh water than biodegradable robes from landfills that emit extra gas.

Increasing gas capture efficiency to more than 85% can make biodegradable dresses more environmentally sustainable
than traditional dresses.

"It's good to break down plastic into smaller things," Zhao said
.
"But these little things eventually break down into gases, and if we don't capture them, they become greenhouse gases
emitted into the air.
"

Funding for this research was provided by the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) with funding from the National Science Foundation and the New York State Department of Imperial Development Science, Technology and Innovation
.

Journal Reference:

1. Xiang Zhao, Jiří Jaromí r Klemeš , Michael Saxon, Fengqi You.
   How sustainable are the biodegradable medical gowns via environmental and social life cycle assessment? Journal of Cleaner Production, 2022; 380: 135153 DOI: 10.
   1016/j.
   jclepro.
   2022.
   135153