DiCE comes to an end: there is a solution for the digital healthcare waste!
After four years of research, the Digital Health in the Circular Economy (DiCE) project has produced what researchers describe as the first practical blueprint for transforming digital healthcare into a circular system that keeps products, components and valuable materials longer in use.
The final report of the DiCE concludes that manufacturers, healthcare providers, policymakers, recyclers and patients all have essential roles to play in reducing healthcare e-waste while maintaining the highest standards of patient safety.
Says Pascal Leroy, Director General of the Brussels-based WEEE Forum: “Digital health technologies are transforming healthcare. Millions of devices, from diabetes sensors and blood pressure monitors to advanced surgical instruments, are helping patients live longer, healthier lives while making care more personalized, efficient and effective. But the rapid growth of this market is creating a largely overlooked problem: a fast-growing stream of electronic waste. DiCE has shown how to mitigate that problem and recover increasingly precious and strategically critical raw materials.”
The project examined every stage of the lifecycle of several digital healthcare products, from product design and manufacturing through collection, refurbishment, reuse, and recycling. Researchers also tested circular business models, consumer behaviour, reverse logistics systems, and new policy approaches across Europe.
...and see more on projects results below:
DiCE Project Final Event
Close to a 100 particpants joined our partners in Brussels on 23 September to discover the project's final results and discuss how the findings and recommendations of the DiCE Project will be taken forward.
DiCE Final Report
The project's final report consolidates findings across the full device lifecycle — grounded in five real-world cases (an endocutter, digital display label, smart pillbox, ECG lead sets, and on-body delivery system). It covers life cycle assessments identifying environmental hotspots (showing that system-level impacts, like hospitalisation or drug manufacturing, often outweigh the device itself), a Circular Design Guide, citizen pilots testing device-return behaviour across Belgium, Spain, and Slovenia, practical recovery pathways (reuse, refurbishment, reprocessing, recycling) including a smart collection system, circular business model analysis and an interactive Circularity Dashboard, and a closing set of policy recommendations — covering material traceability, WEEE classification, reprocessing rules, and procurement - aimed at enabling a genuinely circular digital health ecosystem while safeguarding patient safety and clinical performance.
DiCE Training Materials
The DiCE project has developed a range of training materials on circular design, life cycle assessment, and motivational strategies, together with policy recommendations and more, all aimed at promoting circular practices for digital health devices. All materials are free to download and use for educational purposes and certain with translations in Spanish, Italian, German and Chinese.
Circular Design Guide
DiCE's Circular Design Guide is a practical guide from TU Delft's Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering that walks MedTech developers, engineers, and business/clinical stakeholders through a five-phase process for embedding circularity into medical device design. It combines frameworks, decision trees, worksheets, and real-world examples (covering strategies like refuse, replace, rethink, reduce, reuse, refurbish, remanufacture, recycle, and renew) to help teams identify environmental hotspots, generate and evaluate circular design concepts, and navigate common barriers such as regulatory compliance, sterilization requirements, and financial constraints - all while maintaining clinical safety and performance.
Circularity Dashboard
DiCE's Circularity Dashboard developed by Freie Universität Berlin integrates environmental, economic, and circularity data drawn from EUDAMED, sustainability reports, and stakeholder surveys.
The dashboard supports healthcare decision-makers, in particular regulators and policymakers, by enabling them:
- Evaluate how circular practices affect costs and emissions across Europe.
- Benchmark national and institutional performance in digital health.
- Explore “what-if” scenarios for regulation, reuse, and supply chain design.
Policy Recommendations
This policy brief - developed by the World Resources Forum Association and the WEEE Forum - builds on an assessment of the governing landscape, including an analysis of best practices and challenges in selected Member States. The brief seeks to inform policymakers and stakeholders on targeted actions to strengthen regulatory coherence, foster innovation, and maintain high standards of patient safety and environmental sustainability across the EU.
Instruction Manual for Operational Workers Handling Digital Health Devices
DiCE's Operational Manual - developed by the WEEE Forum, Recupel, Ekosij, GRIN, MIREC and ECOLEC - is designed primarily for operational workers in healthcare facilities, waste collection and logistics organisations, and treatment, refurbishment, and recycling facilities. It also supports managers, supervisors, and trainers by providing a consistent framework for procedures, training, and compliance. Specific guidance is included for both medical facilities and household generated devices, recognising the different risks and collection pathways involved.
Training Course for the Design of Motivational Strategies for a Circular Economy
A step-by-step blueprint developed by Games for Health, teaching practitioners how to design and test motivational strategies ("nudges") that encourage citizens to return end-of-life medical/digital devices for recycling and reuse.
Roadmap for DiCE Replication Across Europe
The roadmap - developed by the IT University of Copenhagen, WEEE Forum, Freie Universität Berlin - draws on DiCE's earlier findings to map where in Europe circular business models for digital health devices can take hold, and how to get them there. It groups countries into four readiness tiers based on reprocessing rules and WEEE infrastructure. It then sets out a three-phase path: hospital pilots in the most ready markets, regional partnerships with third parties, and eventually cross-border scale once EU rules are harmonised.
Training on Sustainability Assessments
A five module training course - developed by the World Resources Forum Association and Ghent University - covering circular economy strateegies, social life cycle assessment, life cycle costing and life cycles assessment for healthcare devices with helpful guidance for those new to this topic.
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This project was funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme. The contents of this newsletter only reflect the views of the project.
