# What is the carbon footprint of an orthopaedic implant?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/orthopaedic-implant-carbon-footprint

Titanium alloy, cobalt chrome or stainless steel bar is a large part, because machining removes much of it and titanium takes a lot of energy to make. Add CNC and polishing electricity, cleaning, sterilisation and packaging per implant. Weigh bar bought, not the finished part.

## Inputs

- Bar or forging weight per implant.
- Supplier figure per kg of alloy.
- Electricity for machining and finishing.
- Sterilisation and packaging.

## Turnings

Titanium turnings sold for recycling leave with your waste. Keep the bar bought in full in your figure.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads your electricity bills, fuel invoices and purchase invoices into dated, fingerprinted records, so a per unit footprint can be traced back to the documents behind it. Estimates are labelled as estimates.

- [Forged crankshaft footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/crankshaft-carbon-footprint-per-piece)
- [Disposable syringe footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/disposable-syringe-carbon-footprint-per-piece)
- [Product carbon footprint calculator](https://senseible.earth/calculators/product-carbon-footprint)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Product Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/standards), [ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org)](https://www.iso.org), [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.