RENOLIT Healthcare goes Circular – SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH CIRCULARITY

Halfway to the deadline for the 2030 UN-Agenda on Sustainable Development, the latest SDG report reveals that the world is not on track to reach the goals. GHG emissions are still rising. Also, the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report finds that global temperature is already 1.1 °C above pre-industrial levels and is likely to reach or surpass the critical 1.5 °C tipping point by 2035. Among other things, the UN report highlights that the oceans were burdened with over 17 million metric tons of plastic pollution in 2021, with projections showing a potential doubling or tripling by 2040.

By working to become a circular economy, we are pulling on several levers to help achieving the SDGs that are relevant to us as a polymer manufacturer. For our efforts, RENOLIT Nederland B.V. was awarded the silver medal by ECOVADIS, a system for evaluating corporate sustainability. The score is especially important to collaborate on sustainability with our partners and clients e.g., to reduce GHG emissions across our value chain.

Post-industrial recycling

To save resources and to prevent polymers ending up in the environment, we collect, recycle, and return own post-industrial residual materials into the production process within the RENOLIT Group. Our goal is to achieve 100 percent by 2025. Additionally, we are already cooperating with clients on taking back PE welding waste for compounding at an external partner and reusing the compounds at our RENOLIT Munich production site. More client projects will follow.

Taking back packaging materials

With our customers in Europe, we are setting up a system to return our packaging materials to our site in Enkhuizen. Our goal is to return 60 percent of the packaging made of polymers, wood, and paper, by the end of 2023 – a total of at least 120,000 kg. For the year 2025, we have set ourselves the goal of using 100 percent recyclable packaging materials that consist of 50 percent recycled material.

Operation clean sweep

Our sites are working to implement the program “Operation Clean Sweep” to prevent plastic pellets from entering the environment.

Renewable energy for production

Our production site in Chile is already powered by 100 percent renewable energy – with more sites to come.

Manufacturing process optimization

To conserve materials and energy, we rely on latest technologies while constantly optimizing and digitalizing our processes.

Usage of medical polymer products

As components of medical devices or bio processing systems our products are serving human health. To prevent infection and contamination, they are designed for single use. In addition, due to current regulatory reasons, these products do not allow for multiple use. They withstand energy saving gamma irradiation, are lightweight to reduce energy consumption, but maintain integrity during transports and storage.

Post-consumer recycling

About 85% of Healthcare Waste is non-hazardous waste that can be recycled. RENOLIT Healthcare is collaborating with Hospitals, National Health Services, recycling companies and NGOs to build collection systems and partnerships for advanced recycling of medical polymers to curb global warming and environmental pollution from plastics.