Where Does a Single-Use Tray Go? Disposal Routes for VOLKOS Veterinary Products

One material, three clean exits

VOLKOS trays, bowls and scoops are pressed from 100% recycled paper fibre. There is no plastic liner to peel off, no absorbent polymer core, no bonded layers. Whatever route the product takes after use, it travels as one material — and that is what makes each route simple.

Compare that with the multi-component products a ward typically uses: a clinic pee pad bonds five or more materials together, and a rigid plastic tray is a single polymer but one that persists for centuries. Disposal of those products is a compromise. Disposal of a paper product is a choice.

Route 1: Ward waste, exactly as you handle it today

Used in a clinical setting, a VOLKOS tray or bowl goes out with the waste stream the clinic already runs. Products that have contacted infectious patients or fluids follow the clinic's compliant clinical waste route; products used in general wards can follow general waste, subject to local regulation and the clinic's own infection-control policy.

Because the product is single-use, nothing needs to be carried to a sink, washed, disinfected or stored. The disposal step replaces the entire reprocessing step.

Route 2: Incineration with energy recovery

Paper fibre burns cleanly and completely. In municipal and clinical incineration with energy recovery, the carbon in the fibre is released as CO₂ — but this is biogenic carbon: carbon the plant drew from the atmosphere as it grew, returning on a short cycle. It is not new fossil carbon added to the atmosphere the way burning plastic is.

There is also no residue problem: no melted polymer, no bonded layers that survive the process. The product's full footprint per kilogram is 0.188 kg CO₂ on our modelled basis — a fraction of the figure for a clinic pee pad (3.9 kg) or a plastic tray (5.9 kg).

Route 3: Back to the soil

Where a product is clean — unused spare trays, or products used only with dry, non-infectious material — and local rules allow, paper fibre biodegrades in soil in 90–180 days. It does not fragment into persistent microplastic; it breaks down and becomes a natural part of the soil again. We cover this route in detail in our companion article.

This route applies to clean material only. Anything that has been in contact with patients, medication or clinical fluids stays in the clinical waste stream — biodegradability is a property of the material, not a licence to bypass infection-control rules.

What this means for the practice

• No separation or dismantling at disposal — one product, one material, one bin.
• No washing, disinfectant or drying time — disposal replaces reprocessing entirely.
• Clean material can biodegrade in soil in 90–180 days where rules allow; clinical waste follows your existing compliant route.
• Modelled footprint of 0.188 kg CO₂ per kg of product, from the VOLKOS LCA Report, June 2026.

A note on the figures

Comparison and scale figures are modelled estimates, not a certified third-party LCA. Source: VOLKOS LCA Report, June 2026. Not yet third-party critically reviewed — independent verification recommended before external ESG or procurement use.