ROSWELL, Ga., Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Illinois
Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) at the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University have diverted almost six
tons of waste from landfills through an innovative recycling
program that turns used lab gloves and garments into shelving,
flowerpots and lawn and garden furniture.
Both institutions were looking for ways to reduce their solid
waste streams and enhance their sustainability efforts. They found
it in a program called RightCycle by Kimberly-Clark Professional,
the first large-scale recycling program for non-hazardous lab and
industrial waste.
Since its inception in 2011, RightCycle has diverted more than
350 metric tons of waste from landfills. In its first year, it
diverted two tons of waste. The number of customers participating
in the program has significantly increased, from just a handful at
the start to almost 200 as of July
2016. Kimberly-Clark Professional is continuing to expand
the program – bringing it to Western
Europe and exploring expansion into other regions.
"We pioneered this program because we recognized that the
sustainability goals of our university and pharmaceutical customers
included reducing landfill waste, and single-use gloves accounted
for a large percentage of that waste," said Randy Kates, director of the Kimberly-Clark
Professional Global Scientific Business. "We needed to find a
recycling solution that helped them achieve their goals and enabled
their people to be positively engaged in the process."
RightCycle removes gloves, masks, garments, shoe covers and
other apparel accessories from the waste stream and turns them into
plastic pellets. These are then used to create eco-responsible
consumer products and durable goods, such as lawn furniture,
flowerpots and planters, shelving, totes and storage bins.
Illinois Success Story
The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) is a division
of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Its
mission is to drive statewide economic growth through
sustainability. To fulfill that mission, ISTC conducts scientific
research and, in the process, uses a lot of gloves.
"We conducted a waste audit to see how we could go to zero waste
in our own building and realized that gloves were about 10 percent
of our total waste by weight," said Shantanu Pai, ISTC assistant sustainability
researcher. "We were already effectively recycling other items –
glass, aluminum, paper and cardboard."
With RightCycle, ISTC was able to reach 89 percent compliance
for gloves in its labs – even higher than the rate for paper and
cardboard recycling. It then decided to take the program a step
further, piloting it in the University's main dining hall and
achieving an estimated diversion rate of 90 percent. It is in the
process of expanding the effort to all dining facilities and campus
labs. In fact, the university has purchased a storage container to
house the gloves, so that shipments can be made just once a
year.
Since implementing the RightCycle program in 2013, the Center
and the University have diverted 4,945 pounds, or approximately
320,480 gloves, from landfills. "RightCycle has had a huge impact
on our activities and our sustainability metrics," said
Kevin O'Brien, Ph.D., director of
the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center. "If you ever used
gloves as part of your laboratory work, you quickly appreciate the
value this program brings from a sustainability perspective."
Purdue University
Across its campus in the course of a year, Purdue University uses approximately 360,000
disposable gloves. That's a lot of trash – 3.5 tons to be exact,
all of which would normally wind up in a landfill.
The university, based in West
Lafayette, Ind., has won numerous awards for sustainability.
Its efforts extend to many different areas – recycling, planning
management, landscaping and green construction. With a diversion
rate goal of 85 percent, the university is always seeking new and
different ways to reduce its solid waste stream.
In 2014, Purdue University added
glove recycling to its list of sustainability accomplishments, when
it adopted the RightCycle program. Since November 2014, the chemistry department at
Purdue University has diverted 6,862
pounds of lab gloves from landfills, or approximately 444,718
gloves. Michael Gulich, director of
campus master planning and sustainability, is looking to expand the
program to other campus labs as well as food preparation areas.
"Once you address cans, bottles, paper and cardboard recycling,
you get into smaller niche streams," he said. "We have some
addressed very well, such as electronics waste and landscape
debris. Previously, gloves didn't have a solution. Anything that
increases our diversion rate is good."
To learn more about the RightCycle program, visit
www.kimtech.com/rightcycle.
Sustainability Leadership
Kimberly-Clark Professional
has a long history of innovation and environmental leadership and
has been recognized by leading environmental non-governmental
organizations for its efforts. In 2015, it became the first major
manufacturer in North America to
produce bath tissue and towel products incorporating domestically
sourced non-wood fiber. It also was the first away-from-home towel
and tissue products company in North
America to obtain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
certification for a broad range of towel and tissue products and
currently holds the largest portfolio of FSC certified towel and
tissue products in North America.
Its parent company, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, was recently
recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Center
for Corporate Climate Leadership with one of only 17 Climate
Leadership Awards given nationwide for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. Kimberly-Clark Corporation also is committed to
achieving a goal of zero manufacturing and office waste to
landfill. All K-C Global Nonwovens manufacturing facilities, which
develop and manufacture fabrics and materials used to create
products such as protective apparel and face masks, have
consistently diverted more than 95 percent of their waste from
landfills for the past 10 years. In 2015, Kimberly-Clark diverted
more than 95 percent of its own manufacturing waste from landfills.
For more information, visit www.kcprofessional.com or
www.kimberly-clark.com
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