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83 million devices in one year: the hidden waste problem inside digital health

Qurexa Editorial Team23 September 20266 min read 0 0
83 million devices in one year: the hidden waste problem inside digital health

What happened

A four-year European research project has finished, and its conclusion is that the growing pile of electronic waste created by digital healthcare is not inevitable. The project is called Digital Health in the Circular Economy, shortened to DiCE. It ran from October 2022 to September 2026, was funded through the European Union's Horizon Europe programme, and brought together 20 organisations across nine European countries. The findings were published on 23 September 2026 by the WEEE Forum, a Brussels-based body that works on electrical waste. The scale of the problem is set out clearly. In 2020 alone, 83 million wearable medical devices were placed on the European market. Globally, the number of wearable devices is projected to reach two billion a year by 2050. Around 62 million tonnes of electronic waste are produced worldwide each year, heading for 82 million tonnes by 2030. In Europe, only 54% of it is properly collected. The project did not stop at counting. It tested changes and measured what they saved. Switching to reusable ECG lead sets, the wires that connect a heart monitor to a patient, cut environmental impact by between 81% and 94%. Electronic pharmaceutical labels cut climate impact by 27%. Powered electronic surgical staplers cut the overall climate impact of surgery by 12%. Redesigning those staplers raised potential material recovery from 51% to about 90%. The project also ran pilot collection schemes with 414 members of the public. More than 60% were willing to return devices when a convenient system existed.

Why this matters

Digital health has arrived quickly and mostly for good reasons. Monitors that let someone go home sooner, sensors that catch a problem early, single-use items that stop infections spreading between patients: these are real improvements. But every one of those devices contains electronics, and most were designed to be thrown away. That creates two separate problems. One is waste: plastic, batteries and circuit boards going to landfill or incineration. The other is loss: the metals inside these devices, including copper, gold and rare earth elements, are difficult to mine and easy to lose. What makes the DiCE findings useful is that they are specific. "Be more sustainable" is advice nobody can act on. "Reusable ECG lead sets cut environmental impact by 81% to 94%" is a decision a hospital procurement team can actually make. The 60% figure from the public pilots matters too. It suggests the barrier is not that people refuse to return devices. It is that nobody has given them an easy way to do it. That is a solvable problem, and a cheaper one than most.

What the evidence actually says

This is a research and development project reporting its own results, so it deserves a careful reading. The strengths are real. DiCE ran for four years, involved 20 organisations across nine countries including manufacturers, and produced measured figures rather than estimates. Several of the findings come from life cycle assessments, a standard method for comparing the total environmental cost of two ways of doing the same thing. The honest caveats are these. The project was partly funded by the EU and included industry partners, including manufacturers. That does not make the results wrong, and having manufacturers involved is arguably necessary if anything is to change. But it does mean the findings should be read as a project reporting on its own work, not as fully independent assessment. The percentages depend on assumptions about how often something is reused, how it is cleaned and how it is finally disposed of. Change those assumptions and the numbers move. Most importantly, reusable does not automatically mean safer. Infection control rules exist for good reasons, and any switch from single-use to reusable in a clinical setting has to clear that bar first. Tamara Hoveling of TU Delft, who led the project's circular design guide, put it directly: "The challenge this project faced was to preserve clinical performance and patient safety while extending product life." The 414-person collection pilot is also small. It is a promising signal about willingness, not a national survey.

Practical advice

Most medical device waste is decided by hospitals and manufacturers, not by individuals. But there are still useful things people can do. - Never put a device with a battery in your household recycling or general waste bin. Lithium batteries start fires in bin lorries and at sorting sites. This is a genuine and growing hazard. - Return unused or unwanted medicines to a pharmacy. Pharmacies accept them, and it keeps them out of water and landfill. - Ask where a device should go when you finish with it. If you are given a home monitor, a glucose sensor or a similar device, ask at the point you receive it. It is much easier than working it out later. - Check your local council's website for electrical waste collection points. Most areas have them, and many people do not know. - Do not take apart a device to recycle it yourself. Batteries can be damaged easily. - If a device is still working and you no longer need it, ask the service that provided it whether it can be returned rather than binned.

What to know

The EU-funded DiCE project, which ran from 2022 to 2026 across nine countries, has set out practical ways to cut the electronic waste created by digital healthcare. Reusable ECG lead sets cut environmental impact by 81% to 94%, electronic pharmaceutical labels cut climate impact by 27%, and powered surgical staplers cut surgical climate impact by 12%, with redesign raising material recovery from 51% to around 90%. Context: 83 million wearable medical devices entered the European market in 2020; 62 million tonnes of e-waste are produced worldwide each year, and only 54% of Europe's is properly collected. In public pilots with 414 people, more than 60% were willing to return devices when a convenient system existed, suggesting the main barrier is convenience rather than willingness. At home, the single most useful rule is simple: anything with a battery does not belong in a household bin. Sources: EurekAlert!/WEEE Forum, "Digital healthcare and electronic waste: There is a solution, EU experts say", 23 September 2026, https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1144340; Digital Health in the Circular Economy (DiCE) project, Horizon Europe, https://dice-project.eu/ This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.

#e-waste#digital health#circular economy#medical devices#sustainability#recycling

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