A new study in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization warns that the single-use design of lateral flow tests has led to an unseen waste of plastic. Researchers from Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh looked hard at 21 COVID-19 test kits and found that each kit uses between six and almost 40 grams of plastic. They urge test makers to trim down excess plastic without hampering health gains.

The study shows great scope for using less plastic. Target product profiles, drawn up to guide test makers, fix ideas like cost, weight, and size. Yet few of these profiles mention how tests hurt the land. Professor Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas, co-lead of Heriot-Watt’s Global Research Institute in Health & Care Technologies, said: “We have found few target product profiles that mention the environmental impact of tests, and none provide quantitative measures. We want these profiles to include a limit of four grams of plastic usage in the lateral flow tests cassettes, for example. Our study showed that was the average weight of plastic in test cassettes, so it’s achievable. We hope this will be adopted as policy and an industry standard.”

Professor Alice Street from the University of Edinburgh stressed, “Improving access to essential medical testing should not come at the expense of environmental sustainability. Our findings show that reducing plastic waste in test kits is both feasible and necessary.” With more than two billion tests made each year, and millions of HIV and malaria tests bought in 2023, the tests have brought great care but a heavy burden on waste systems.

In places with poor waste-handling, used test cassettes tend to end up in dumps or waterways, or they are burned and fill the air with unwanted fumes. Even in robust waste systems, few of these plastics find a way back into use.

The full study, titled “Mass of Components and Material Distribution in Lateral Flow Assay Kits,” is set out in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.