Project Title: Delivering Sterilization Solutions to the Developing Medical World
Product Name: SaniGeyser
Project Description:
Problem:
Obsolete tools and machines from the medical field contribute to a large percentage of the earth’s toxic waste. One major cause of this is the donation system which brings commercial medical products to lower-income countries for second-hand use.
On average, four out of five pieces of donated equipment are never even turned on, contributing to 250 million dollars’ worth of waste per year.
Numerous flaws in this supply chain lead all types of devices to be unusable as soon as they are received, and their lack of support for specialized disposal and recycling practices results in these items ending up in landfills or littering the streets.
Autoclaves and sterilizer machines were identified as some of the top out-of-service devices in low-income hospitals, increasing the risk of harmful infections in patients.
Solution:
Due to the overwhelming number of obstacles embedded in our current donation system, it was clear that there would still be setbacks to a solution that addresses any specific issue within the supply chain. Instead, saniGeyser aims to disrupt the system by operating completely outside of what is currently practiced.
Most importantly, manufacturers will be local and cater solutions to the specific region where they will be used, considering their climate/environment, culture, and ideologies. Renewable energy design opportunities were explored to accommodate for possible limited infrastructure and power supply.
The proposed solution will be part of a start-up-style business model that rents the devices to healthcare centers as needed, making them accessible for an affordable price. This also means that at the end of the product’s life, it can be recollected for restoration, reused for parts, or disassembled and recycled, cutting out any possible waste.
