Shortly after it was announced that Teknor Apex received their +Vantage Vinyl certification, Medical Plastics News caught up with Derek Laffey, medical industry manager for Teknor Apex, to find out what this means for the company.
1. What is Teknor Apex implementing to ensure the company is sustainable?
Teknor Apex is committed to the journey of corporate sustainability – it’s one of our core values — as a business partner, an employer, a community member, an environmental steward and a value creator for our stakeholders.
Every day we investigate new sustainable raw materials, processes, technologies and partners to deliver the most innovative solutions for addressing a wide variety of performance and regulatory requirements.
Being good stewards of the environment means investing in initiatives to reduce the environmental footprint of our operations. A few recent activities of note are the 1 million Kilowatt-Hour Challenge, the installation of solar panels in several of our manufacturing facilities, the establishment of a green energy partnership in Singapore, and our global partnership with Operation Clean Sweep (OCS).
Social responsibility at Teknor Apex is something we take very seriously. While this duty effects everything we do as a company, we specifically strive to be good stewards in the following three capacities: As a manufacturer – to product products that are safe for customers and consumers, as an employer – to provide a safe and healthy workplace for every single one of our employees, and as a member of the community – to protect the environment for ourselves and others, as well as for future generations.
2. What does the +Vantage Vinyl verification mean for Teknor Apex?
Teknor Apex has long been an industry leader in innovation and sustainability and being a member of +Vantage Vinyl aligns us with like-minded organisations that further the sustainability of the vinyl industry. Companies that are granted use of the +Vantage Vinyl mark have undergone verification by third-party GreenCircle Certified to confirm their organisation’s progress compared to the programme’s guiding principles relating to environmental stewardship, social diligence, economic soundness, open communication, and collaboration. The initiative’s structure ensures that Teknor Apex is advancing the sustainability journey of the vinyl industry in alignment with targeted United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
3. Teknor Apex has supplied the industry for over 70 years, how has looking after the environment changed in that time and what factors do you have to consider now that you didn’t then?
Medical Device Manufacturers, as in other industries, are under increasing pressure from customers, regulators, governments, and consumers for more environmentally friendly products. As we formulate new compounds, we must consider the many directives on materials that regulators have deemed hazardous to the environment such as EU REACH SVHC, EU MDR, EU RoHS, and CA PROP 65.
4. What innovation has had to take place to make your existing products more sustainable?
We have consistently worked in partnership with our customers to innovate new products with more sustainable raw materials and efficient processes or introducing new technologies and recycling solutions.
Our Medical Grade Apex PVC and Flexalloy PVC Elastomers lead the industry on all fronts: non-DEHP plasticiser options, colour hold after Gamma and E-Beam sterilisation, and ultra-clear tubing and parts that result from decades of formulation and manufacturing expertise. They are formulated with FDA 21 CFR ingredients and are designed to meet a wide range of global sustainability and regulatory requirements.
Our compounds are formulated to be ADM compliant, BPA and LATEX free, and come with biocompatibility test data for USP CLASS VI and ISO 10993-5 Cytotoxicity.