Eco-friendly dialysis with the Systemic Design methodology: an eco-friendly dialysis may start from "the grave"

Chronic Hemodialysis produces about 600,00 tons of plastic wastes per year. The Systemic Design is an innovative method to analyse the environmental impact and the improvement strategies needed for a "friendly planet" production hardware and supplies, in all field of human life, with an approach that progressively moved from the study of the lifespan of the object to the continuous start of new cycles "from cradle to cradle". In medicine, attention to the environmental impact is still limited, most of the analyses so far performed regard the last part of the cycle. Aim of the present study was an analysis of the characteristics of the disposables employed in chronic hemodialysis, as a tool for identifying strategies to reduce the enviromental impact and the discharge costs