Partners’ pioneering PPE materials use waste to tackle waste

Aston University and Midlands-based company PFE Medical are collaborating to produce biodegradable gloves, which will themselves be created from waste food.

It is estimated that, each year, the health service gets through 1.4 billion disposable gloves.

Much of the personal protective equipment (PPE) used in the UK derives from China, with the lengthy supply chains involved adding to the economic and environmental disposal cost.

The Aston/PFE Medical project will involve the university developing polymers from fruit, dairy and corn-derived food waste in preference to the usual petroleum sources.

As a so-called Knowledge Transfer Partnership, combining a university, business and research associate, it is funded by Innovate UK.

The research element will be led by professor Paul Topham, director of the Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence (AIME) and institute associate member Dr James Wilson.

PFE will contribute its commercial and clinical expertise in scaling innovative technologies for use in the medical sphere.

Said Topham: “At Aston University, we have a long history of working with industry, of translating fundamental research into solutions for real world problems.

“This project with PFE Medical provides us with that route, to take our science and engineering and make a difference to peoples’ lives. That’s exactly where, as researchers, we want to be.”

The KTP is the third between Aston and PFE, whose previous projects include an automated endoscope cleaner currently used throughout University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB).

Rob Hartley, CEO of PFE Medical, said: “Our previous KTP with Aston University was a phenomenal success. I’m just as excited by this project, which is looking to solve an equally long-standing problem.

“If we can achieve our goal, then the implications are huge, going far beyond the NHS to all the other situations where people are wearing disposable gloves.”