What Is ISCC PLUS and What Does It Mean for Sustainable Materials in Healthcare and Diagnostics?

Across the healthcare and diagnostics industries, companies are under growing pressure to reduce the carbon footprint of their products and operations. At the same time, many laboratory and diagnostic applications rely on single-use plastic consumables that must meet extremely strict purity and performance requirements.

Unlike some other industries, healthcare manufacturers often cannot use mechanically recycled plastics in products such as pipette tips, cartridges, or other laboratory consumables, which are in direct contact with diagnostics assays or samples. Even small impurities could compromise sterility, chemical stability, or diagnostic accuracy.

This creates a difficult challenge: how can manufacturers reduce their environmental impact while maintaining the strict quality standards required in medical and diagnostic environments?

One increasingly important solution is ISCC PLUS certification and the mass balance approach, which allows companies to replace fossil-based raw materials with renewable or recycled feedstocks within a certified and traceable supply chain.

To clarify what ISCC PLUS means in practice — and what it means for customers — we spoke with Eira Kärjä, Healthcare Segment Lead at Premix. 

Let’s start with the basics; what is ISCC PLUS? 

Eira:

ISCC stands for International Sustainability and Carbon Certification. ISCC PLUS is a globally recognized certification system designed to verify the sustainability and traceability of alternative raw materials across complex supply chains.

These alternative feedstocks can include bio-based materials, recycled plastics, waste and residue streams, or other renewable resources. The certification ensures that these materials are sourced responsibly and tracked throughout the entire value chain.  

A key element of the ISCC PLUS system is chain-of-custody verification. This means that every company handling the material in the supply chain — from raw material producer to compounder and converter — must be certified and audited.

One commonly used method within the system is mass balance, where renewable or recycled feedstocks are introduced into existing production systems and their sustainability attributes are tracked through verified accounting. This allows companies to increase the use of sustainable raw materials while maintaining the performance and quality required in high-specification applications such as healthcare and diagnostics.  

In short, ISCC PLUS provides independent third-party verification that sustainability claims are credible, traceable, and supported by audited documentation across the entire supply chain. 

Why is ISCC certification particularly relevant in healthcare and diagnostics?

Eira:

Diagnostics and life sciences rely heavily on plastics, especially in laboratory automation. Plastic-made pipette tips and other consumables are lightweight, sterile, durable, and cost-efficient — and they enable safe single-use products where hygiene and contamination control are critical.

Because these consumables are directly linked to patient safety and diagnostic accuracy, materials used in them must meet extremely strict quality requirements. Any material change typically requires extensive regulatory review, product validation, and customer qualification processes, which can take significant time and resources.

At the same time, sustainability expectations in healthcare are increasing rapidly. Companies are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint, shift toward renewable or recycled feedstocks, and demonstrate measurable environmental responsibility.

This creates a fundamental challenge: how can sustainability be improved without triggering major material changes that require new validations or regulatory approvals?

This is where ISCC PLUS certification becomes particularly valuable. Through the mass balance approach, renewable or recycled feedstocks can be introduced into existing production systems while maintaining the same material specifications, performance, and regulatory compliance.

In practice, this means manufacturers can reduce the carbon footprint of their products while continuing to use validated materials and established production processes.

In healthcare, sustainability cannot come at the expense of reliability. ISCC certification helps ensure that environmental improvements are traceable, audited, and compatible and align with the strict quality and regulatory requirements of the diagnostics industry. 

What kind of change management process is required when switching to an ISCC-certified grade?

One common misconception is that ISCC-certified plastics are chemically different from conventional fossil-based plastics. In reality, they are chemically identical. In ISCC-certified production, renewable or recycled feedstocks are introduced into the same production system as fossil raw materials. Through the mass balance approach, the sustainability attributes are allocated and tracked through the supply chain, while the material itself remains identical in quality and performance.

A familiar example of the mass balance concept is the purchase of green electricity. Everyone uses the same electricity through the grid, but the renewable electricity is allocated to customers who choose to pay a premium for it on their electricity bill. 

What does ISCC certification mean specifically for electrically conductive plastics?

Eira:

Electrically conductive plastics, such as Premix PRE-ELEC^® compounds combine a base polymer with conductive carbon black to create stable and reliable electrical conductivity.

For applications like conductive pipette tips used in automated diagnostics, performance cannot be compromised. Sustainability solutions must work without sacrificing conductivity, purity, or process stability — and that is exactly the balance we aim to achieve.  

When we offer ISCC PLUS certified conductive compounds, it means that the base polymer originates from certified renewable or recycled feedstocks, and that the sustainability attributes are tracked through the supply chain using the ISCC chain-of-custody system. Today, medical-grade polymers such as polypropylene are already available as ISCC-certified versions, which makes it possible to produce more sustainable conductive compounds for healthcare applications.

However, the situation is slightly different for conductive carbon black, which is the key ingredient that gives these materials their electrical properties. ISCC-certified versions of conductive carbon black are still emerging, although suppliers are actively working on reducing the carbon footprint of their current products and innovating new more sustainable grades using bio-based or recycled feedstocks derived from alternative oils.

Importantly, the ISCC version still delivers the same chemical, electrical, mechanical performance as the original ‘fossil-based’ product required in critical applications. 

Is sustainable electrically conductive plastic the future?

Eira:

Yes, but the transition will not happen overnight.

Regulatory frameworks, corporate sustainability targets, and investor expectations are all increasing the pressure to reduce carbon footprints. Over time, certified sustainable materials are likely to move from a premium option to a baseline expectation in many industries.

There is also an economic dimension. Fossil feedstocks are expected to become more expensive in the long term, while bio-based and recycled raw materials are being developed and scaled. As supply chains evolve, these alternatives will become increasingly attractive.

We see sustainability not as a short-term trend, but as part of long-term material innovation. Certification systems such as ISCC help ensure that sustainability claims are credible, transparent, and independently verified. 

From Intention to Action

Sustainable materials are no longer a future ambition — they are becoming a requirement driven by regulation, customer expectations, and supply chain resilience.

ISCC PLUS certification provides a practical pathway for healthcare and diagnostics companies to reduce their carbon footprint without compromising performance, quality, or compliance.

However, successful implementation requires collaboration across the value chain — from raw material producers to converters and end users.

At Premix, we support our customers in this transition by combining material expertise, certified solutions, and application understanding — helping them take concrete steps toward more sustainable products while maintaining the reliability their applications demand.