Reusable Stainless Steel Syringe
- Reusable Syringe
University Project: PRD2013 - The UK produces an astonishing 1,887,764 tonnes of medical waste each year - most of which is buried in landfill or incinerated. A high proportion of this waste comes from the disposal of single-use syringes.
Made of PET, the highly recyclable syringes are unable to be sterilised, and this presents a problem as far as recycling goes. Single-use syringes cannot survive the temperatures and conditions generated within an autoclave, and for this reason, they are disposed of after use.
I have proposed here a reusable syringe that can survive sterilisation, and which is totally retrofittable and produceable. 
- The needle itself remains disposable; the fragility of the needle and the size of the lumen means that it simply cannot survive inside an autoclave. The syringe, however, is totally reusable and recyclable at the end of its life.
The hub of the needle is made essentially of two parts - a die-cast, surgical stainless steel "sheath", and a glass tube. The glass tube fits snugly into two curved arms to ensure it does not shake, and is secured to the head of the syringe using a silicone adhesive. 
- Designed with the user in mind, I interviewed many doctors and nurses during the course of the project, and made several alterations to the form of the product.
Designing in such close harmony with the user meant that I was able to design a product that was entirely feasible to use and produce. 
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