Life cycle assessment of routinely used endoscopic instruments and simple intervention to reduce our environmental impact

A team from Spain have published a method to establish the material composition of commonly used endoscopic accessories and then used life cycle assessment methodology to quantify the carbon footprint of biopsy forceps, snares and haemoclips. Impacts were estimated at approx 300-570g CO2e per accessory.

They also propose a method, a 'Green Mark', to safely identify the portion of the accessory that could potentially be recycled after use, rather than high temperature incineration.