The Circular Kickstart Healthcare Challenge: Driving Circular Healthcare
The Circular Kickstart Healthcare Challenge by The Circular Hub is one of the twelve winning entries in the first Belgium Builds Back Circular (BBBC) project call. With a clear mission—to help the healthcare sector adopt circular practices— the initiative is taking an important step toward sustainable healthcare. And this is made possible, among other things, thanks to the support of the BBBC fund.
A sector facing challenges
The healthcare sector faces significant environmental and circular challenges. The intensive use of single-use materials generates large amounts of waste, while energy and water consumption further increases its carbon footprint. Pharmaceutical residues and chemical waste place an additional burden on the environment.
The Circular Kickstart Healthcare Challenge: Inspiration and Guidance
With the Healthcare Challenge, founder Mieke Pieters inspires and supports start-ups, scale-ups, healthcare institutions and large companies. Through various programs, including the Circular Healthcare Challenge, she demonstrates to participants how innovation and sustainability can mutually reinforce one another.
"The key is to teach entrepreneurs how they can grow without using new materials, and how theycan achieve success with circular contracts such as pay-per-use, service, and take-back clauses" says Mieke.
Five concrete challenges
As part of the Circular Kickstart program, the partners have defined five concrete challenges:
Switch from single-use to multiple-use materials;
Reuse of devices and components;
Find circular packaging solutions;
Make processes and raw materials in the pharmaceutical and chemical sectors more sustainable;
Set up a circular and flexible healthcare infrastructure.
Several participating start-ups are currently working on solutions that:
Reuse medical devices or components instead of discarding them;
Convert food waste into energy, creating value from waste streams;
Transform recycled materials into new panels, particularly for the furniture industry
Use bio-based and renewable materials in packaging and infrastructure.
Living labs as a testing environment
Living labs are a key element: innovations are tested in a real healthcare environment in more than 50 hospitals across Belgium. This provides valuable insights and stimulates collaboration between start-ups, healthcare institutions, and industrial partners.
New models, lasting impact
In addition to technological innovation, the Circular Kickstart Healthcare Challenge also focuses on new economic models. By shifting from traditional purchasing to usage-based formulas, promoting repairability and developing circular contracts, the living lab methodology—supported by the Living Lab Canvas—ensures that this approach is both scalable and transferable.
From Flanders to international movement
What started in Flanders is now growing into both a national and international movement. This approach has, among other things, inspired the sustainable healthcare initiative in Wallonia. The goal remains unchanged: to build an ecosystem that fosters circular innovation, reduces the ecological footprint and enhances the quality of care.
Towards sustainable healthcare with BBBC
Thanks to the support of Belgium Builds Back Circular, The Circular Hub has gained extra leverage to make the healthcare sector circular and future-proof. With this initiative, the FPS Public Health aims to stimulate an economy in which materials and components are used to their full potential throughout their entire life cycle, in line with the European recovery plan.
Towards sustainable healthcare with BBBC
Thanks to the Belgium Builds Back Circular investment fund, The Circular Hub is receiving additional support to guide the transition toward a circular and sustainable healthcare sector. Through this initiative, the FPS Public Health aims—within the framework of the European recovery plan—to stimulate an economy in which materials and components in the healthcare sector are used as efficiently as possible throughout their entire life cycle.
