Waste diagnostic - A caste study of a company’s waste management

Abstract: This case study of the waste management at a pharmaceutical company investigates the current situation and possible improvements for future work in terms of amount of waste generated, treatment methods and economy. The scope of the project was to assess all current waste streams from the everyday activities and find potential areas for improvement. Chemical/solvent waste have not been investigated thoroughly because of the complexity to make changes within the manufacturing processes. Waste generated during demolition and construction by external contractors have been excluded since it is not a part of the business as usual. The company has set the goal to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 20% and waste generated by 15% and to achieve these goals the waste diagnostic project have been initiated. Waste reports and guided tours at each department have been compiled to assess and map out all waste streams at the site. The waste management hierarchy has been used as a tool together with performance measurements to evaluate current situation and with examples from literature, other sites and industries recommendations have been made. The waste management hierarchy is a tool used to prioritize waste management to reach a circular economy, with landfill at the bottom and reduction/reuse at the top of the hierarchy the current status of a company can be assessed and also what areas that have to be improved in order to climb the hierarchy. The company shows a good environmental performance today and comply with internal standards, the waste metric scoring calculation results in a value of, , 464 which corresponds to energy recovery level of the waste management hierarchy. An ISO certificate ensures customers that a product or service meet the standards the customer have. There are ISO standards within many different areas and ISO 14001 applies to environmental management which the company is not certified with. The company comply with the internal standards but an ISO certificate would result in extra credibility. Some of the recommendations to the site includes a waste management communication program to engage employees, reuse of disposable pallets, drying of wastewater sludge and installation of paper shredder to reduce costs related to classified documents.