Trelleborg shares its sustainability initiative

Medical Plastics News caught up with Trelleborg at MD&M West to discuss the ongoing demand with products during the pandemic and how they can maintain their sustainability.

Trelleborg, a specialist in engineered polymer solutions, aims to offer safe care for patients and a safe workplace for medical staff. The ongoing pressure of keeping people safe from the pandemic, does not take away from the rising demand on new and improved devices.

Kevin Ehlert, mergers and acquisitions director at Trelleborg said: “Our customers are constantly challenging us to get smaller, thinner walls. Our group is active in continuing to push the boundaries on their side, trying to develop capabilities because we know that as we go further on in the years, we're just going to continually get challenged. So, we're doing our own internal push to continue to own our skillset, to make sure that we can serve the market.

“It's less of an impact on the patients. Basically, they don't want it. They don't want to know it's there, or they want to walk around and feel normal. As instead of doing say open-heart surgery, going in through a catheter, through an artery is minimally invasive.”

Juggling demand and integrity is no easy feat; whilst working on new and improved devices, it’s important to remember how it’s going to affect the environment. Is this device single-use? Can it be disposed of in an eco-friendly way? Is there a way to make this more sustainable? 

With over 21,000 employees in 48 countries, it’s important for Trelleborg to try and keep a lower carbon footprint. They have been developing a sustainability platform called ‘Protecting the Essential’. By the end of 2025, their goal is to reduce the company’s global CO2 emissions by 50% and judging by their 2020 emissions, they believe this is achievable. If that wasn’t enough, they are ambitious that they will have net zero emissions by the end of 2035.

“A big buzzword that we've had has been sustainability. There are lots of definitions of ‘sustainability’” Ehlert commented. “You have to dispose of something if it's single use. You are producing a lot of things that are disposed of. There's a footprint from the single use systems. We and our customers are looking at what the future of that looks like. Part of it means reduction in materials.”

Does sustainability just mean something must be used multiple times? There are so many examples where single use items are not sustainable. Recently, there has been concern about the amount of waste caused by single use face masks and other PPE.

But what about the behind the scenes of running multiple use devices? Fletcher said: “You have a large stainless steel, more permanent infrastructure, which takes a lot of harsh chemicals to clean. The standard to sterilise and get that ready for the next batch. So, it's not that the other methods have no impact.” It really is all about trying to find that balance.

Asking a few people was not enough for Trelleborg - by giving surveys to customers, employees, and shareholders, they have been able to identify the aspects of concern. The results highlighted issues such as energy consumption, emissions to air and water, the use of hazardous chemicals and, of course, the importance of a safe workplace.