Single-use plastic waste is one of the most persistent challenges facing healthcare facilities today. Atlantic Health partnered with Clear Drop to pilot the Soft Plastic Compactor in their hospital pharmacy — and the results exceeded expectations. The potential for annual soft plastic waste diversion is not only substantial but also higher than we anticipated.
soft plastic med bags discarded daily from a single pharmacy
of soft plastic diverted from landfill per hospital annually
plastic waste diverted per year — from just one pharmacy location
Introduction
Atlantic Health operates the nationally renowned Atlantic Health Morristown Medical Center, one of eight hospitals across their system serving the Northern New Jersey region. As part of their "Greening the Pharmacy" program, the hospital sought innovative solutions to address the environmental impact of their pharmacy operations.
The Waste Problem
The main pharmacy at Atlantic Health Morristown processes hundreds of patient medication transfers daily, generating substantial amounts of soft plastic medical bags. With no viable recycling pathway in Northern NJ, these bags were being sent directly to landfill.
High waste volume: 550–600 plastic med bags discarded every day.
No recycling pathway: Soft plastics have extremely limited recycling options in the Northern NJ region — making landfill diversion a real challenge without the right technology.
Project Goals
The "Greening the Pharmacy" pilot program aimed to test whether soft plastic diversion at scale was operationally feasible in a live hospital environment.
- Assess the feasibility of recycling medical plastic bags at volume
- Quantify waste diversion potential at facility and system-wide levels
- Evaluate workflow integration without creating medication delivery bottlenecks
- Test the Clear Drop SPC technology in a real-world healthcare environment
The Soft Plastic Compactor Solution
The SPC was deployed to process patient transfer medication bags — soft plastic bags used to deliver pharmaceuticals to patients. These bags contain no medical waste or bodily fluids, making them a clean and viable plastic recycling stream.
The SPC transforms loose, bulky medical plastic bags into dense, compact blocks through a proprietary compression process. Completed blocks can be shipped efficiently to Clear Drop's recycling partners.
Pharmacy technicians brought all emptied patient-transfer med bags to a designated collection point in the main pharmacy. Bags were transported to a separate on-site building twice per day. The SPC compacted approximately 250–320 bags per batch — producing one 6-pound block per daily cycle in approximately one hour. Completed blocks were packaged in Clear Drop-provided bags with pre-printed labels, with up to five blocks shipped per bag.
Results: Waste Diversion Impact
The one-week pilot at Morristown Medical Center's main pharmacy demonstrated clear and measurable results.
When extrapolated across Atlantic Health's multi-hospital system, the potential for waste diversion becomes even more substantial.
550–600 medication bags processed through the SPC
7 compacted blocks produced, totaling 42 pounds of plastic diverted
2,184 lbs (1.09 tons) of soft plastic waste diverted per hospital — every year
The SPC pilot successfully demonstrated that we could make a meaningful environmental impact without overhauling our entire pharmacy operation. Diverting 2,184 pounds of plastic annually from just one pharmacy shows the potential for system-wide implementation.
Atlantic Health Morristown Medical Center Pharmacy Team
Findings and Key Success Factors
The pilot successfully demonstrated that healthcare facilities can meaningfully reduce their environmental footprint while maintaining full operational efficiency.
- Workflow integration: The SPC fit naturally into existing pharmacy operations with minimal disruption
- Quantifiable impact: SPC block output enables clear reporting toward sustainability goals
- Scalability: The process can expand to satellite med rooms and be replicated across multiple hospital pharmacies within the system
- Operational best practices: The pilot identified optimal SPC placement in areas with adequate ventilation, and controlled feeding (rather than bulk loading) for best compression results
Strategic Implications for Atlantic Health
With multiple hospitals in the Atlantic Health network, system-wide implementation could divert several tons of soft plastic waste annually. This aligns with healthcare sustainability imperatives while potentially reducing waste hauling costs and demonstrating environmental leadership in the healthcare sector.
The pilot also revealed opportunities for broader collaboration — expanding beyond pharmacy to other hospital departments generating soft plastic waste, and sharing best practices with other healthcare systems facing similar challenges.
Bring Medical Plastic Recycling to Your Healthcare Facility
Atlantic Health's successful pilot positions them as a leader in healthcare sustainability innovation. The program demonstrates that with the right technology and commitment, hospitals can transform a persistent waste stream into an environmental success story — one med bag at a time.
Atlantic Health continues to evaluate expansion opportunities across their hospital network as part of their ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship and operational excellence.
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