The global plastic pollution crisis and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic – where billions of single-use diagnostic tests were discarded – is prompting businesses and researchers to develop new and more sustainable rapid diagnostic tests. Some companies have designed biodegradable tests for flu and COVID-19, while researchers are finding new and creative ways of making tests out of recycled materials. But these innovations mostly come from companies and institutions in the global North.
Low- and middle-income countries, where plastic pollution is most severe and local production of diagnostics is rare, will need a big push from investors and regulatory bodies to become sustainable, experts say. Last month, Dutch company Okos Diagnostics started selling what it says is the first fully biodegradable test kit for COVID-19, Influenza A and B and Respiratory Syncytial Virus, after three years of prototyping and testing various materials and designs. The test case is made of a plant-based material resulting from agricultural discard.
The complete test, which is ready for users to buy and swab themselves, is now being sold worldwide for EUR 4.99 (US$ 5.5).
The company made it a point that the test be biodegradable and not just recycled, so that it could address the issue of used tests ending up in landfills, especially in low- and middle-income countries, co-founder Sander Julian Brus told SciDev.Net. Okos calculated that its test kit could biodegrade in 10 to 30 months and.