# How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a disposable syringe?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/disposable-syringe-carbon-footprint-per-piece

Add the polypropylene barrel and plunger, rubber gasket and needle per syringe with supplier figures. Add moulding, assembly, printing, packing and sterilisation energy, then divide by syringes packed.

## Materials

- Polypropylene barrel and plunger.
- Rubber gasket and stainless steel needle.
- Blister paper and film.

## Process

- Injection moulding in clean rooms.
- Assembly, printing and blister packing.
- Sterilisation by ethylene oxide or radiation.

## Per piece

Report per syringe by size. Clean room air handling can be a large share of plant electricity, so meter it.

## Worked example: disposable syringe unit per piece (one month)

- Electricity: 60,000 kWh x 0.710 = 42,600 kg CO2
- Syringes packed: 2,000,000
- Plant total: 42,600 / 2,000,000 = 0.0213 kg CO2 per piece
- Add polymer, needle and packing 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](https://senseible.earth/calculators/product-carbon-footprint)
- [Injection moulding footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/injection-moulding-carbon-footprint-per-kg)
- [Surgical instrument footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/surgical-instrument-carbon-footprint-per-piece)
- [Chemical industry](https://senseible.earth/industries/chemical)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Product Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/standards), [ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org)](https://www.iso.org), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-10-20.