After Single Use | After Single Use

Infrastructures of reuse cluster: reflections from our first meeting

A reflection on the first meeting of the Infrastructures of Reuse cluster, exploring three historical sources that reveal how sterility, labour, and disposability became embedded in modern healthcare.

Pavan Kumar Thalari

Thalari Pavan Kumar is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the University of Hyderabad, working on the anthropology of human organ transplantation in Telangana. He has worked on multiple research projects for government and non-governmental agencies, focusing on occupational health innovations among farmers and on documenting the socio-cultural histories of various caste and tribal communities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. His research interests include medical anthropology and material culture.

External profile

Blog posts

Biomedical waste management in Senegal: a visit to Dr Sett

Dr. Sett is the first and only biomedical waste treatment facility in Senegal. Located in Sinda, 68 km from Dakar in the Thiès region, it enables public and private medical facilities to manage all their biomedical waste in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Simran Sonawalla

Simran Sonawalla is currently pursuing a MSc (Research) in Social Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. She is researching news media representations of household roles and responsibilities in energy transitions, examining their influence on public opinion in the UK. Her broader research interests include epistemic justice, with a focus on how community-based knowledge can inform research, policy, and practice.

External profile

Josh Hill

Josh Hill is a communications professional and artist working across material culture, digital media and environmental arts. His work focuses on reuse and sustainability within the visual arts, supporting creative and research-led approaches to circular practice. His artistic practice examines elemental processes and the interplay between digital and organic forms, bringing an interdisciplinary perspective to storytelling, public engagement and the communication of research.

External profile

Pamela Toliman

Dr Pamela Toliman, Deputy Head of the Surveillance and Outbreaks Unit at the PNG Institute of Medical Research, holds a Ph.D. in molecular diagnostics and epidemiology from UNSW Sydney. Her pioneering work in cervical cancer screening introduced PNG’s first HPV molecular data and informed national policy. She co-leads major public health and surveillance programs, contributed to COVID-19 and HIV diagnostics, and champions women in STEM, earning multiple national and international awards.

External profile

Alex Grosse

Alex is a chemist and toxicologist, passionate about research on the effects of man-made waste on human and environmental health. Her interests lie in scientific communication, the use of microfluidics for biomedical applications, and sustainability in toxicological testing. She is eager to work in an interdisciplinary environment, bridging the gap between the physical and social sciences.

External profile

Stacia Clinton

Stacia trained as a Registered Dietitian, leading the provision of food and clinical nutrition care in healthcare facilities. She joined HCWH 16 years ago and she has served in leadership, directing programs at the intersection of human and environmental health to ignite the health sector mission to First Do No Harm. Stacia brings skills in systems analysis and individual behaviour change to the design of programmatic strategy. Recent work has explored the role of inner development practices to build personal and collective resilience within NGOs.

External profile

Clara Schlösser

Clara works as a Policy Implementation Officer for HCWH Europe. She engages with hospitals to move to a more circular system. Additionally, she works at a policy level to raise awareness and strengthen advocacy for environmental regulation of PVC and other harmful plastic uses in healthcare. She has a BSc in European Public Health from the University of Maastricht and a master’s degree in Politics and Social Policy from the University of Bologna.

External profile

Akhilesh Bonthu

Akhilesh Bonthu is a PhD student in Anthropology at the University of Hyderabad. His research examines the social, material, and ecological aspects of single-use plastic waste in the Indian healthcare sector by tracing product trajectories from production to discard. His work integrates perspectives from medical anthropology, discard studies, and sustainability studies to create a better understanding of environmental impact and design sustainable healthcare practices.

External profile

Frontpage content

Infrastructures of reuse cluster: reflections from our first meeting

Biomedical waste management in Senegal: a visit to Dr Sett