ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESS: 326 PRACTICES


TOPIC:

Initiative

Recycle Together – Waste management and recycling Program

Recycle Together – Waste management and recycling Program
SUBMITTED FROM:

MSD

MSD (Merck Sharp & Dohme) is a global healthcare leader and among the largest pharmaceutical companies worldwide, working with customers in 140 countries and employing 74.000 people. 

 

Read more:  www.msd.gr


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Objective Action

Recycle Together is a waste management and recycling program, fully aligned with our ambitious MSD goals for sustainable environmental development. Recycle Together responds to the current needs of our planet and it’s main objective is to contribute in natural resources’ conservation , waste decrease and optimal waste management.

Recycle Together supports activities that aim to reduce our environmental footprint and our commitment to improving peoples’ lives. More specifically, our goals is to reduce waste coming from our own company’s activity, but also achieve the optimal waste management for the part of it, we can not avoid. This can be executed through “reuse” and “recycling” strategies, so that the waste can be finally deployed and not ending up to the landfill, as it is commonly used to.

 

Target Audience

MSD Employees|Society

 

Duration

The program is being intensively implemented from 2021. Every year our services will be evaluated and updated.


Description

Recycle Together main objective is for MSD employees to recycle materials that are being commonly used in our office premises like paper, confidential documents, disposable packaging, batteries, small electrical devices and coffee pods. MSD employees are being informed, educated and adopting on these environmentally friendly practices. Therefore, in order to enhance this initiative we have created an informative video with respective details and guidelines, as well as prompt recycling guide.

Paper

Avoid excess printing

Choose digital filing over printing or conventional filing
Choose double face printing to reduce paper use by 50%
Reuse: Choose recycled paper for printing documents
Extra documents (office papers, envelops, documents, newspapers, magazines, cartons : Dispose them of in paper recycling bin already installed in each office floor (offices, corridors, printing machines, kitchen)

Confidential Documents

Dispose them of  in Confidential Documents’ bins, installed in each floor

Disposable packaging

The reduction of the disposable plastic materials use is one of our main priorities, both for our environment, health and wellbeing. Choosing reusable materials forms an ideal solution in order to radically reduce the amount of plastic each one of us uses on yearly basis.

Reuse

We are aiming at replacing disposable plastic materials with reusable ones, both for office use as for personal use . (flask, reusable bottle,reusable dishware, metallic silverware)

Recycling

We are disposing packaging of , after cleaning it from any unnecessary remains, in our packaging recycling bins, installed across the corridors of our offices and kitchens (i.e. Plastic bottles, cans, tetra pak packaging, glass bottles, plastic packaging and wrappings).

Batteries

The proper management of batteries is a “key” issue for public health: Even though batteries consist only 0.2% of litter in the landfills, a surprising 20% of toxic chemical substances originates from battery waste.

Reuse

Prefer to opt for rechargeable batteries

Recycling

We dispose all disposable or rechargeable household batteries weighing under 1.5 kg: cylindrical, flat, “buttons”, of  in the battery bins, installed in our premises.

Small electrical & electronic devices

Recycling : We dispose all small household /office electrical and electronic devices, which we intend to replace or which do not work anymore, of into the small electrical/electronic devices recycling bins (i.e. keyboards, mouses, power banks, usb sticks, fixed and mobile phone devices, tablets, laptops e.t.c.)    

Coffee Pods

Coffee pods are made of aluminium, a material which requires a significant amount of energy consumption to be produced. However, at the same time, aluminium is 100% recyclable and can contribute to the conservation of our natural resources and energy. Each recycled pod “returns” back to us as another useful product for our everyday lives.

Recycling: We dispose of all reusable coffee pods to our bins with the respective labelling, installed in our kitchens.

After all materials have been collected in our offices’ recycling bins, the company has ensured that all of them will be redirected to approved waste disposal and treatment facilities , where they will be reshaped into raw material and be deployed for new products’ creation. Therefore,  there is a significant reduction of  their environmental footprint.


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Impact on Society

Recycling has impressive impact on the environment. The numbers cited below showcase the importance of green practices.

•             With every 1 tn of recycled paper we save : 17 “ adult” trees, 32.000 lt of water, 170 kg of oil and 4100 kwh of electricity.

•             By recycling 1 tn of plastic we prevent 732 kg of gas from being diffused in the atmosphere and deteriorating the Greenhouse Effect.

•             By recycling 1tn of aluminium : we prevent the extraction of 4 tn of bauxite and we are saving 500 kgs of soda,100 kgs of limestone, 25 kgs of cryolite, 35 kgs of aluminum fluoride and 700 kgs of oil.

•             By recycling one glass bottle we are saving energy that could light up 1 whole room for 8 hours.

•             By recycling a conventional mobile device – minus battery and other fittings- we are saving the below materials: plastic, glass, copper, iron, aluminium, magnesium and silver.



Initiative Location

Across Greece and wherever there are MSD employees 


Working with Organization

.Yes/ASA RECYCLE S.A., Perme Hellas ,IRON MOUNTAIN- MAD DOG, Municipality of Alimos, OIKOKIKLIOS S.A. CAN RECYCLE, Envirochem Hellas S.A, voluntary groups for bottle cap collecting , Appliances Recycling S.A, Nespresso, ECO Technics.


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Workers Participation

Yes there is full participation of MSD employees


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