How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a blood bag?
Weigh the PVC film, tubing, needle and anticoagulant per bag set and multiply by supplier figures. Add film making, welding, filling and sterilisation energy, then divide the plant's energy by bag sets made.
Material
- Medical-grade PVC film and tubing.
- Needle, ports and anticoagulant solution.
- Pouches and labels.
Process
- Film extrusion or bought-in film.
- Radio-frequency welding and assembly in a clean room.
- Filling, steam sterilisation and packing.
Per bag
Report per bag set by type, single to quadruple. Clean room air handling can be a large share of the energy.
Worked example: plant energy per bag (one month)
- Electricity: 120,000 kWh x 0.710 = 85,200 kg CO2
- Bag sets made: 300,000
- Plant total: 85,200 / 300,000 = 0.284 kg CO2 per bag
- Add PVC, needle and solution for the full figure
Inputs are illustrative; use your own bills and production records.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.
- Product carbon footprint calculator
- IV fluid bottle footprint
- Disposable syringe footprint
- Urine bag footprint
- Chemical industry
Sources: GHG Protocol Product Standard, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.