Through our recycling programs, we help our customers dispose of our products and packaging.
Our principles
Design for Sustainability
Our Design for Sustainability (DFS) program encourages our Life Science research & development teams to design products with reduced life cycle impacts. This process focuses on utilizing recyclable or reusable materials that can be easily recovered or separated. Through DfS, we are continuously working to reduce the ecological footprint of our products and make disposal as easy as possible for our customers.
Progress
Recycling program updated
Many of the products we supply to our Life Science customers are used once and then discarded. This is necessary to minimize the risk of contamination and is common practice within the industry. Moreover, this approach helps reduce costs because our customers don't have to clean disposable products, thereby saving time and natural resources such as energy and water. Recycling the plastic in these products is not easy, primarily due to inadequate recycling options, challenging material properties, and stringent regulatory requirements.
In cooperation with Triumvirate Environmental, a waste management company based in Massachusetts (USA), we launched a recycling program at the beginning of 2015 to serve our Life Science customers in the United States. Under this initiative, product waste from their research labs and biopharmaceutical manufacturing operations is collected and recycled in its entirety. This program has thus replaced our previous individual initiatives, which included our Biopharma Product Recycling Program as well as our Ech2o™ Collection and Recycling Program for water filter cartridges. These processes were not efficient because the various materials had to be separated before recycling.
Our partner company Triumvirate Environmental has developed an innovative process for recycling challenging waste streams. This method recycles 100% of the product without needing to first decontaminate or separate the materials. Triumvirate Environmental then takes the recycled mass and manufactures plastic materials that are used in the construction industry for items such as speed bumps. Since launching the program, we've recycled approximately 450 metric tons of waste generated from the use of our products. Six of our customers are already participating in the program.
We are currently investigating how we can expand this initiative beyond the United States to markets in Europe and Asia.