Waste
Conserving Resources
As part of the ISO 14001 environmental management standard, we follow the reduce, reuse, recycle hierarchy when it comes to waste management. All of our sites have been challenged to reduce waste in their operations, including reducing single-use items in their breakrooms and printing of paper documents, as well as reducing other types of process waste such as metals and chemicals in our production facilities. As a minimum, all of our sites follow local regulations on waste disposal and recycling, but many of our sites have gone the extra mile to offer employees additional opportunities to recycle, including providing drop-off points for textile and shoe recycling, battery recycling, and paper shredding. On electronic waste, we comply with the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), which mandates the collection and recycling of electric and electronic equipment at our sites in Europe.
Hazardous Waste
We have detailed procedures for managing hazardous waste at our facilities, aligned with guidelines from the Globally Harmonized System. We also follow local guidelines where relevant, such as the Toxic Substances Control Act in the U.S. and the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances in China. We recycle hazardous waste through third-party partners.
Packaging
We are working to reduce the impact of our product packaging through an analysis of packaging requirements for each product and a search for alternatives with lower potential GHG emissions. For example, when launching the new MOVIA scan head product in 2021, our product development team carefully considered the environmental impact of its packaging. New cardboard packaging with innovative film suspension was used to replace previously used closed-cell foam packaging. This reduced the use of unrecyclable plastic while improving the level of protection afforded to the product.