Stanford Study: The Environmental Cost of Catheterization

Researchers at Stanford University have published a study that estimates how much plastic waste is generated by single-use intermittent catheters every year - an astonishing 85 million pounds of plastic every year! This is the equivalent of 26,000 cars or 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The researchers arrived at this number by taking the amount of waste generated by no-touch catheters, which are safer than standard catheters but not as widely reimbursed by insurance because of their cost. The article also considers waste generated by more common standard catheters, and estimates that 16.5 million pounds of plastic waste are generated annually by single-use standard intermittent catheter use.

The article also cites sources that show that an actual decrease in UTI rates following the adoption of single-use catheters in 2008 by Medicare has not been demonstrated!

“Despite the massive amount of non-biodegradable waste created and fact that catheters are packaged as “single-use,” there is no definitive evidence to support the practice of using a new sterile catheter for each catheterization.”

It also identified (correctly in our opinion) that barriers to more sustainable, reusable catheters include convenience and the impact that the need to clean catheters would have on usability and independence. That's precisely what we're working on at Aurie - a way to make catheter reuse convenient and safe!

The authors conclude the article with this sobering thought: their numbers only accounted for catheter use in the United States. Usage and waste worldwide will likely be much higher.

That's not all though - the analysis in this paper only looked at 3 groups of catheter users - people with spinal cord injuries, spina bifida, and multiple sclerosis. The total amount of waste generated in the United States may actually be much higher. Aurie's own estimates of catheter use in the US is approximately double what was cited in the study. The true environmental impact of catheterization in the US may be closer to 33 million pounds of plastic waste!