Bandages and the Environment
Exactly how good or bad for the environment are commercial bandages? A used adhesive bandage cannot be reused or recycled.
If you look at the lifecycle of adhesive bandages (http://www.designlife-cycle.com/new-page-4/), it may not be as bad as expected. To look at the bandage as a whole, the transportation and distribution of raw materials will produce a large amount of CO2. To look at the bandages in sections, first one must dissect the bandage into its three components, the plastic strip, the adhesive layer, and the absorbent pad.
The Plastic Strip
The polyethylene plastic strip comes from steam-cracking ethane and propane a process that uses a lot of energy and is generally done in coal fired factories. This produces a by-product, ethylene, which can then be combined to create polyethylene.
The Adhesive Layer
The raw materials for the adhesive are acrylic acid and ester resin; acrylic acid also come from steam-cracking while ester resin is a combination of glycerol and hydrogenated rosin.
The steam-cracking uses just as much energy as it does to create polyethylene and the process will traditionally still take place at a coal fired factory. CO2 and CO are produced as a result of this process.
Absorbent Pad
Often made of rayon fibres from wood pulp or cotton. In order for the kraft paper processing to take place, a lot of chemicals, heat, and pressure are needed to extract the fibres. Kraft pulping will release sulfur oxides and carbon oxides. Zinc can also be released in the form of waste water and enter waterways.
The individual components of a bandage are not recyclable, however the plastic strips can be, as long as it has not made contact with the wound – if cut off the soiled pad, they can be recycled with plastics. In addition the release sheets that cover the bandage before use are also recyclable.
Gauze Bandages
The first step in creating gauze is to knit spun cotton. The cut edges are then embossed by embossing rollers. A stainless steel expander adds another ply, generally there are 3-plys to a gauze bandage. It is then folded and wound on cardboard sleeves to be cut to size, and eventually packaged.
As the process includes only knitting, embossing, cutting, and packaging using relatively small machines (small compared to a lot of mechanical and engineering machines), there are few negative environmental impacts – largely the extraction of the raw materials.
Compression Bandages
Compression bandage refers to a wide range of elastic bandages used to treat muscle strains and sprains by reducing blood flow to a particular area. Elastic bandages are generally available in latex and a non-allergenic version. The manufacturing process is similar to that of gauze, as gauze is a main component of compression bandages. If properly washed and cared for, compression bandages are reusable.

It is an individual choice as to which type of bandage to use, the convenience of prepared and individually wrapped bandages may be the answer for most people, however it should be noted exactly how much energy and raw materials are used in production and exactly how much of the end product is recyclable. Compression bandages have a specific use and are not an option in many cases, however gauze may be suitable for many injuries, and has a smaller environmental footprint than plastic bandages.