Advertise on podcast: Gradical Podcast - The Podcast about Plastics in Medical Technology

A special episode hosted by Swiss Medtech, with Barbara Mettler asking the questions. Prof. Dr. Martin Scheringer from ETH Zurich, toxicologist Arne Jaksch and Lucas Pianegonda work through what medtech companies should actually do about PFAS this year. In this episode: - Where PFAS sit beyond the product: process water, piping, cooling and cutting fluids, packaging, processing aids - Why your supply chain will be interrupted before any regulatory grace period ends, and what to do about it now - How to find PFAS in your own company without burying your suppliers in questionnaires - Why replacing a PFAS in an existing product takes about three years, and why new development is the place to act - Essential use and non-essential use, and why what is essential today may not be essential next year This episode was co-hosted by Swiss Medtech. CONNECT: Swiss Medtech https://www.swiss-medtech.ch | Barbara Mettler https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-mettler-a5705722/ | Martin Scheringer, ETH Zurich | Arne Jaksch, Jaksch LifeScience Consulting https://www.jlsc.ch ABOUT THE PODCAST: MedTech Sustainability by Design is the show for people choosing better plastics in medical technology. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical . Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

From September 2026, the EU stops accepting green claims that nobody has verified. Self-certified labels are banned. Fines run up to 4% of annual revenue. I talked to James Connelly, CEO of My Green Lab, the non-profit behind the ACT Ecolabel, the first third-party verified eco-label for laboratory products. Over 5,300 labs in 62 countries have engaged with My Green Lab certification, including 42 of the 50 largest biotech and pharma companies. In this episode: - How the ACT 2.0 label's 100-point score actually works, and why there is no on-site audit - What the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive bans, and what "verifiable" means for your own claims - The line between a defensible CO2 claim and one that gets you in regulatory trouble - Why medical devices don't have an ACT-style label yet, and what would have to change first CONNECT WITH JAMES CONNELLY: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-connelly-55909024/ ABOUT THE PODCAST: MedTech Sustainability by Design is the show for people choosing better plastics in medical technology. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

European hospitals are already scoring sustainability in tenders. Joachim Almdal from Care Pathway Consulting explains why the device is only 10 to 15% of the emissions across a care pathway, and why that changes what you optimise and who you have to convince. In this episode: - What a care pathway is, and why looking at the device alone moves the problem around instead of solving it - Why European healthcare providers cannot hit their 2035 and 2045 targets without pushing requirements onto suppliers - Where you can charge a green premium, where sustainability is only a tiebreaker, and why segmentation decides which one you are in - Why your salespeople will dodge the sustainability question unless you train them, and what that costs you in tenders CONNECT WITH JOACHIM: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachim-espeland-almdal-017a6973/ | Care Pathway Consulting https://carepathwayconsulting.com | Sustainable Healthcare Podcast, on Spotify and Apple ABOUT THE PODCAST: MedTech Sustainability by Design is the show for people choosing better plastics in medical technology. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical . Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Why are most catheters still glued and heat-shrunk together by hand? Simone Maccagnan from Gimac International makes the case for microextrusion: single continuous parts, controlled molecular weight and crystallinity, and dynamic extrusion that changes stiffness along one tube. In this episode: - How microextrusion replaces multi-part catheter assemblies, and why that matters for validation, scrap and patient safety - What dynamic extrusion is, and where the physics gets hard - How inline measurement cuts revalidation and total cost - An honest take on fluoropolymers, PFAS and where automation helps This episode was sponsored by Gimac. GET IN TOUCH WITH GIMAC: https://www.gimac.com ABOUT THE PODCAST: MedTech Sustainability by Design is the show for people choosing better plastics in medical technology. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical . Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

What is the most sustainable catheter we could design from scratch today? Damian Carr, founder of Eyedea MedTech Education and author of the Catheter R&D Handbook, joins me for a full case study. We break down how catheters are built today, why the process is still manual and fluoropolymer-heavy, and what a modern reel-to-reel line would look like. We cover PFAS-free liners, UHMWPE, dynamic co-extrusion, same-polymer designs that can be recycled, and the cost reality: 20 to 25% of today's cost at five times the output once the line runs. Damian is clear that there is no one-to-one replacement for fluoropolymers, so the job is to match the property the application actually needs. We also talk about the human side. The "point of no return" in the operating room, and why engineers need to sit with surgeons before they design the next device. This episode is sponsored by Masterflex Group. Masterflex | Schlauchhersteller | Schläuche und Verbindungen  Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Can bio-based plastic move past the nice story and scale in regulated MedTech? Tim Wagler is Commercial Director EMEA for Braskem's I'm green bio-based portfolio, polyethylene made from sugarcane instead of fossil feedstock. Braskem just launched an I'm green bio-based medical grade. In this episode: - What "physical content" bio-based means and how it differs from mass balance - Why fossil prices are spiking and bio-based is no longer the expensive option - The supply and land-use question, and why sugarcane uses 0.03% of Brazil's land today - Why bio-based is not biodegradable, and the claims you can actually make - Where a drop-in bio-based polyethylene fits in medical and pharma CONNECT WITH TIM Tim Wagler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-wagler-891436a4/ Braskem I'm green: https://www.braskem.com/imgreen/landingpage ABOUT THE PODCAST MedTech Sustainability by Design is the Gradical podcast on choosing better plastics and building better medical devices. Book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical Gradical: https://www.gradical.ch Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

How does a company with 120,000 colleagues and 500,000 products put a number on its carbon footprint and actually act on it? Matthew Yamatin is Global Director Sustainability at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He built the corporate sustainability program from scratch after joining in 2022 and now runs it across eight business groups. In this episode: - The scalable method Thermo Fisher uses to calculate product carbon footprints across half a million products - Why mass balance is the only realistic path to non-fossil plastics in a regulated industry - How biogenic carbon accounting actually works, and where the greenwashing debate sits - Why bio-based plastics stay tied to the oil price, and what it takes to decouple them - How to keep a sustainability program simple enough to move If you work in sustainability, procurement, or product development in life sciences or medtech, this gives you a model you can copy. Connect with Matthew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyamatin/ Thermo Fisher Scientific: https://www.thermofisher.com 00:00 How a 120,000-person company tackles sustainability at scale 01:16 The shampoo aisle problem 06:21 Inside Thermo Fisher 12:43 Scope 1, 2, 3 and the GHG Protocol 15:23 PCF vs CCF 17:50 The scalable PCF method 24:21 Why mass balance is the only scalable path 30:27 Biogenic carbon explained 40:59 Why bio-based costs more 44:10 Building a program from scratch 49:33 Find your North Star KPI 55:14 Closing Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

"Do not do ego-design." A professor told Bart Verleije that in school, and it shaped how he has built medical devices ever since. Bart is Commercial Director at Voxdale, a Belgian design and engineering firm, with more than 1,400 projects over 19 years. He explains how a napkin sketch becomes a certified, manufacturable device, and where most MedTech projects go wrong before they reach a patient. In this episode: - His BURST framework: Business, User, Regulatory, Sustainability, Technology - Why design for manufacturability has to start on day one - How to stop feature creep and trade off conflicting requirements - The Ergotrics story: an inflatable system for turning and proning patients If you develop devices, this one will change how you scope your next project. Connect with Bart: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartverleije/ Voxdale: https://www.voxdale.be 00:00 From a napkin sketch to a certified device 00:56 Meet Bart Verleije: 1,400+ projects, 19 years at Voxdale 01:45 Commit to your product before you build it 05:05 "Do not do ego-design" 06:42 Why every stakeholder needs at least a neutral stance 09:56 The BURST framework: Business, User, Regulatory, Sustainability, Technology 15:46 Design for manufacturability from day one 20:30 The operational cost teams overlook 23:20 A healthy take on AI in documentation 28:29 Database-first documentation and regulation as code 30:13 The conservation of misery: trading off requirements 34:04 Only five value drivers make the board 37:28 "How do you know this?" Breaking false requirements 40:11 Over-requirement is the biggest cost driver 41:33 From a highway traffic jam to proning patients 45:10 The toothpaste factory and the 20-dollar fan 48:17 Bart's advice: commit, talk to experts, stay in your lane 55:28 Closing Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Most sustainable plastics cost two to six times more than oil-based alternatives. That's why you don't see them everywhere. Alex Braun decided to fix that. Alex is the Chairman of Pillar Ltd, an Israeli industrial R&D company with 26 years of experience building materials for the world's largest manufacturers. Out of that work came three startups: PlasticBack, which chemically recycles PVC at under 100 degrees Celsius. Snow Polymers, which makes bio-based plastic at oil prices without requiring new machinery. And Inteligels, a smart wound care polymer that washes off with cold water instead of being peeled off a burn. Here's what we get into: Why most sustainable plastics fail commercially before they ever reach the marketHow Snow Polymers makes bio-based plastic price-competitive with fossil fuels using industrial waste as feedstockWhy PVC is the fourth-largest plastic produced but the last to be recycled, and what PlasticBack does about itHow Inteligels eliminates the most painful procedure in hospitalsThe R&D model that lets Pillar Ltd take risks that neither startups nor corporates canThis episode is sponsored by Pillar Ltd. If you want to make your products more sustainable, let's talk: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical 🔗 CONNECT WITH Pillar Ltd: https://www.Pillar Ltd-ltd.com/about-us 🔗 CONNECT WITH US: 🎧 Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gradical-podcast-the-podcast-about-plastics-in/id1773569554 🟢 Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4vNQ6rPE2CQUGgQtEY3sYq 📺 YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@GradicalGmbH 🌍 Gradical: https://gradical.ch/  📩 Work with us: [email protected] #MedTechSustainabilityByDesign #GradicalPodcast #SustainablePlastics #Bioplastics #ChemicalRecycling #PVC #WoundCare #DeepTech #MaterialScience Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Over a billion autoinjectors are used every year. Almost all of them are single-use. Almost all of that plastic gets incinerated. John Palmer-Felgate spent 30 years designing medical devices. At some point, he decided to actually fix the problem. John is the Founder and CTO of Eco-Inject, a UK startup that has built a sustainable autoinjector from the ground up using 100% bio-based polymers, fewer components, and a completely rethought internal architecture. Here's what we get into: Why you can't just swap in sustainable materials and call it a dayHow John reduced the device to five simple plastic moldingsWhy the production line footprint is a quarter of the current standardHow Eco-Inject achieves a lower cost of goods and better sustainability at the same timeThe commercial reality of selling sustainability to pharma procurement This episode is sponsored by Eco-Inject. If you want to make your medical devices more sustainable, let's talk: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical 🔗 CONNECT WITH JOHN PALMER-FELGATE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-palmer-felgate/  🔗 CONNECT WITH ECO-INJECT: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eco-inject/posts/?feedView=all 🔗 CONNECT WITH US: 🎧 Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gradical-podcast-the-podcast-about-plastics-in/id1773569554 🟢 Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4vNQ6rPE2CQUGgQtEY3sYq 📺 YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@GradicalGmbH 🌍 Gradical: https://gradical.ch/  📩 Work with us: [email protected] #MedTechSustainabilityByDesignPodcast #GradicalPodcast #MedTech #AutoInjector #SustainableDesign #MedicalDevices #Bioplastics #DrugDelivery Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

A lot of MedTech companies treat CAPA as a compliance exercise. They open a record, close a record, and survive the audit. Georg Digel has spent his career watching what happens when that's the only goal… and it's not pretty. Georg is the Founder and Owner of Elevate CAPA. He has spent years helping MedTech companies build CAPA systems that actually work: ones that identify real problems, trace them to their root cause, and prevent them from coming back. Here's what we get into: Why CAPA is one of the most misunderstood processes in medical technology The difference between a non-conformity and a CAPAWhat auditors actually find when they inspect CAPA systems Why "death by CAPA" happens and how to avoid it How management culture makes or breaks the whole thing What a lean, functional CAPA process looks like in practice🔗 CONNECT WITH GEORG DIGEL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgdigel/?locale=de 🔗 CONNECT WITH US: 🎧 Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gradical-podcast-the-podcast-about-plastics-in/id1773569554 🟢 Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4vNQ6rPE2CQUGgQtEY3sYq 📺 YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@GradicalGmbH 🌍 Gradical: https://gradical.ch/  📩 Work with us: [email protected] #MedTechSustainabilityByDesignPodcast #GradicalPodcast #MedTech #CAPA #QualityManagement #MedicalDevices #ContinuousImprovement #QMS #Compliance Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

This episode is brought to you by Vanguard, a company specializing in remanufacturing single-use medical devices to as-good-as-new condition. A device labeled "single-use" gets thrown away after one patient. That makes sense for a syringe. It makes a lot less sense for a cardiac catheter that costs thousands of euros. Ulrike Marczak is the CEO of Vanguard, a company that has been remanufacturing complex single-use medical devices for 30 years. They take used devices from hospitals, fully refurbish them, put their own CE mark on them, and send them back. Safe, legal, and up to 50% cheaper for the hospital. Here's what we get into: The difference between reprocessing and remanufacturingWhy remanufacturing makes sense economically, ecologically, and operationally for certain devicesHow Vanguard tests every single device 100%Which devices are good candidates, and where the business case breaks downWhat OEM manufacturers should be thinking about when they design for the futureIf you want to make your medical devices more sustainable, let's talk: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical 🔗 CONNECT WITH ULRIKE MARCZAK:  Vanguard: https://www.vanguard.de/vanguard-ag/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulrike-marczak-138045115/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH US:  🎧 Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gradical-podcast-the-podcast-about-plastics-in/id1773569554  🟢 Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4vNQ6rPE2CQUGgQtEY3sYq  📺 YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@GradicalGmbH  🌍 Gradical: https://gradical.ch/  📩 Work with us: [email protected] #MedtechSustainabilityByDesignPodcast #GradicalPodcast #MedTech #CircularEconomy #SingleUse #Remanufacturing #MedicalDevices #Sustainability #HealthcareInnovation Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

Bastien Manuel recognized that sustainability was inevitable for most medical plastic manufacturers. At elmplastic,  he proactively established his business with that future in mind. He's Commercial Director at elm-plastic GmbH, a Germany-based, family-owned converter of plastic and manufacturer of pharmaceutical plastic devices. In 2025, they launched what they believe is the only commercially available bio-based plastic oral dosing device on the market: a sustainable pharmaceutical pipette made exclusively made from bio-sourced materials. In this episode, he discusses their approach, how they achieved it, and why the cost argument against sustainable medical plastics is less compelling than most procurement teams believe. Here's what we get into: How eco-design can offset the higher price of bio-based raw materialsWhy volume, scale, and long-term contracts change the equation entirelyHow a family-owned business moves faster on sustainability than PE-backed competitorsWhy early adopters of sustainable medical plastics are gaining a strategic market advantage nowAn overview of the current regulatory requirements for pharmaceutical companies and what developments are expected nextIf you want to make your medical devices more sustainable, let's talk: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical 🔗 CONNECT WITH BASTIEN MANUEL: Website: https://elmplastic.com/de/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bastianmanuel/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH US:  🎧 Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gradical-podcast-the-podcast-about-plastics-in/id1773569554  🟢 Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4vNQ6rPE2CQUGgQtEY3sYq  📺 YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@GradicalGmbH  🌍 Gradical: https://gradical.ch/  📩 Work with us: [email protected] #MedtechSustainabilityByDesignPodcast #GradicalPodcast #MedTech #MedicalDevices #Bioplastics #SustainableMedTech #Pharma Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

This episode is brought to you by Synera Advisory. Most MedTech founders treat FDA clearance like it's the finish line. Jordan Morrison has an entire bookshelf of cleared devices that can't sell to prove it isn't. She's Founding Partner at Synera Advisory, a physician-backed advisory group supporting founders from concept through commercialization. In this episode, she explains why so many MedTech startups run out of road after clearance, and what to do instead. Here's what we get into: Why FDA clearance and a reimbursement strategy are two completely different thingsThe difference between physician founders and engineer founders, and where each gets stuckHow to build an advisory board without burning through equityWhy US value analysis committees will kill your device if you can't make a financial caseThe lean three-person board structure that can take you to Series AIf you want to make your medical devices more sustainable, let's talk: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical 🔗 CONNECT WITH JORDAN MORRISON:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajordanmorrison/ Synera Advisory: https://syneraadvisory.org/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH US:  🎧 Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gradical-podcast-the-podcast-about-plastics-in/id1773569554  🟢 Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4vNQ6rPE2CQUGgQtEY3sYq  📺 YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@GradicalGmbH  🌍 Gradical: https://gradical.ch/  📩 Work with us: [email protected] #MedTechSustainabilityByDesignPodcast #GradicalPodcast #MedTech #MedicalDevices #FDAclearance #Reimbursement #AdvisoryBoard Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch

This episode is brought to you by FKuR Kunststoff GmbH, a leading producer and distributor of bio-based and compostable plastics. "Recycling is just an extension of linearity." Patrick Zimmermann posts the same sentence on LinkedIn, and it always gets a reaction:  He's the Managing Director at FKuR Kunststoff GmbH, a company that's been working with bio-based and compostable plastics for decades. So when he says recycling doesn't close the loop, he's not being cynical. He's being precise. Here's what we get into: Why every recycling diagram you've ever seen is leaving something out Why "zero waste" runs into a physics problemThe difference between biodegradability and compostabilityHow bio-based materials can fill the gap recycling can't If you want to make your medical devices more sustainable, let's talk: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical 🔗 CONNECT WITH PATRICK ZIMMERMANN:  FKuR Kunststoff GmbH: https://www.fkur.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-zimmermann-5a49588b/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH US:  🎧 Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gradical-podcast-the-podcast-about-plastics-in/id1773569554  🟢 Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4vNQ6rPE2CQUGgQtEY3sYq  📺 YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@GradicalGmbH  🌍 Gradical: https://gradical.ch/  📩 Work with us: [email protected] #GradicalPodcast #CircularEconomy #Recycling #Bioplastics #Sustainability #PlasticsIndustry Do you enjoy this podcast? Then subscribe, rate it on your platform, and join the discussion on LinkedIn! Your feedback and comments help us improve the podcast and bring you relevant topics. Let’s form a better world with plastics! If you are a Medtech company struggling to make your devices more sustainable, let’s talk—BOOK A CALL HERE. You can also check our Youtube Channel with lots of free trainings and resources here: Lucas R. Pianegonda - YouTube Website: www.gradical.ch