Waste not, want not: The potential of resource recovery in pharma

Nick Carter of Mitie’s waste and environmental business explains resource recovery potential in the pharmaceutical industry and gives examples of strategies that have benefitted clients.

Out of sight, out of mind

Traditionally, pharmaceutical manufacturers have all had the same attitude towards waste. They rely on its scheduled removal by waste contractors, thereby removing the problem without seeing its potential for further value. Even after the material is in the hands of the waste industry, there is a tendency not to manage the waste in the most productive way possible. All the focus is on disposal, rather than investigating if it could be used as a resource. 

With the growth of sustainable practices and awareness, this type of waste (non) management wasn’t satisfying the corporate sustainability agenda, nor was it rewarding organisations when they looked into applying best practice to their waste process. This is what inspired us at Mitie to develop its contained waste outsourcing service.

Mitie’s ethos is ‘resource, not waste’ which can be summarised by instead of considering materials as unavoidable waste and disposal of those as a cost, Mitie considers all materials as a resource.

The first step in making this philosophy of ‘resource not waste’ work, is putting the customer at the heart of resource management and working as the organisation’s trusted partner. It’s a holistic method, involving corporate culture change and distancing from the ‘use and dispose cycle’, towards considering all possible resources to recoup.

Then you work on extracting the value of all redundant materials, instead of relinquishing them to the waste industry. Share the gains so that waste reduction and changes in behaviour are incentivised.

Resource from pharmaceutical waste – why do it?

The objectives of applying ‘resource not waste’ in pharmaceutical waste management are, increased sustainable practice, optimising efficiencies and the generation of new revenue streams. It is underpinned by the protection of the supply chain from the purchase of raw material, to reducing the production of hazardous waste at the end of the process. It really isn’t just about growing and supporting businesses, it’s about being responsible while doing it.

Mitie does things a bit differently for its pharmaceutical clients by mobilising a significant pool of expertise, identifying opportunities and actual quantifiable innovations. In this way Mitie delivers a range of financial and environmental benefits throughout the life of the contract.

Unlike other waste management contractors, Mitie is not under any pressure to fill its own waste disposal facilities, incinerator plants or funding the existence of expensive assets like fleets of vehicles and processing facilities. Instead Mitie creates a supply chain from existing suppliers that can execute all the necessary applications to streamline waste management performance. The intended outcome is to recoup as much resource from that waste for the benefit of the pharmaceutical manufacturing companies. Mitie uses its flexibility, know-how and connections to find the best and most effective services needed to achieve it.

Even though Mitie offers a holistic service from office space to production, its biggest impact is in the streamlining of production wastes which have the most economic potential for resource recovery.

In the pharmaceutical industry there is, of course, a significant output of hazardous waste. It is vital to influence reduced production of such wastes, the knock-on effects of which extend right down the supply chain. This shifts the status of hazardous waste up the waste hierarchy by employing a closed loop approach. For example, toll recoveries allow solvents to be processed back into raw material for the manufacturer, instead of being resold elsewhere and thereby protecting the supply chain.

Sustainability also plays a big part in applying ‘resource not waste’ as pharmaceutical companies tend to have strong Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) targets. One of the main ways that Mitie recoups the most value for its clients, with the least negative environmental impact, is by shifting wastes from the costly use of high temperature incineration, to recovery or reuse routes.

Putting it into practice

Pharmaceutical manufacturer No 1: A leading pharmaceutical company that specialises in the production of consumer drugs and medicines and that strongly believes in the waste hierarchy: prevention, minimisation, reuse, recycling and disposal in a responsible way. The strategy was changing the mindset of all stakeholders to see waste as a resource that must be recovered.

The objectives of the project were:  

• divert 95% of all waste from landfill

• recycle over 80% of the office waste

• recover 90% of the aqueous solutions

A joint project team was set up and together we began a full analysis of the waste process and identified areas that needed improving. Top of the list was to research potential new market routes and technological solutions for the non-aqueous waste not being recovered already. This included investigating different ways of treating the aqueous based solutions. Transport and recovery costs were also scrutinised to find ways of reducing them. One of the most important elements in any waste strategy across all sectors is examining and implementing more efficient means of waste segregation and getting the employees’ buy-in on the new culture of waste awareness and recycling practice.

Together, Mitie and the manufacturer found new disposal routes for the previously unrecovered non-aqueous waste. This waste is now biologically treated and the solid cakes sold for aggregates. Mitie also found a distillation plant to recover the aqueous based solvents, during this process the water is evaporated and the solid cake left behind can be recycled as aggregate.

One of the main changes on the site is the bulking of waste by type, which reduces the number of collections required. This results in a reduction of the recovery and transport cost as well as the carbon emissions involved in this process.

Significant cost savings were made through various improvement projects:

• re-negotiated prices with existing and new suppliers to maximise cost saving opportunities;

• less than 5% of the waste from the client is going to landfill;

• worked to eliminate the costs associated with off-site treatment of chemical waste streams;

• optimised segregation and recycling opportunities for non-chemical waste streams;

• increased landfill avoidance rates (9% across all non-water waste streams);

• increased recycling rates from 20% in 2011 to 93% in 2013 across bulk waste streams.

Apart from the financial and environmental benefits, the most significant improvement has been cultural by raising awareness that waste is actually a resource. Not only was education key to the project’s success but so was stakeholder engagement as their feedback proved invaluable.

The pharmaceutical manufacturer has benefitted from a financial point of view, saving £150,000 over three years, while reducing its environmental impact.

Pharmaceutical manufacturer No 2:  Their waste management needs were diverse and through improving efficiencies in each area, significant savings were made.

• Re-use of waste as secondary fuel was identified as a priority to meet corporate targets. Mitie identified waste hierarchy improvements which resulted in the diversion of approximately 170 tonnes of hazardous waste from incineration into substitute liquid fuel instead. This achieved cost saving of approximately £30,000 over one year.

• Tanker use improvement was a key issue as it became clear that they were significantly underutilised. The transport costs and the carbon footprint in terms of emissions was extremely poor as tankers were being sent out only partially full. This meant that costs were being expended for moving empty space and the carbon influence from transportation of waste was high. Once this situation had been rectified a saving of £51,000 per year was made.

• Managing bio-waste: the manufacturer needed a better solution for managing their egg waste resulting from the production of vaccine, whilst reducing their carbon footprint and costs. During an international pandemic, 26 tonnes per day of egg waste was contaminated with the virus for testing.

Through some creative thinking, Mitie devised a solution that required separating the constituents of the egg in a centrifuge that was installed on-site for the purpose. The separated egg liquid was transported to an incinerator and the egg solids were sent for recycling at a local facility. A cost saving of 63% was achieved compared its original means of disposal. Furthermore, due to sustainable waste management practices, the reduction in transport emissions was 20 tonnes of CO₂ per month.