Casella, BD study recycling options for discarded syringes

For the past decade, Rutland, Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems has partnered with Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD) to recover, process and recycle waste at more than 30 BD sites across the U.S.

BD, based in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, serves as a global medical technology company focused on improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. Through the partnership with Casella, BD recycles 100 percent of its nonsalable product (such as off-specification syringes and related manufacturing waste) generated from its manufacturing process. Using advanced techniques, the company says it has increased its recycling rate of its material streams by 255 percent since it first partnered with Casella in 2013.

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Chee Lum, vice president and general manager of Injection Systems at BD, says the company’s partnership with Casella is part of the company’s overarching 2030+ environmental, social and governance strategy. The companies work to recover, process and recycle waste generated at BD’s sites via mechanical recycling methods.

“Our partnership [in 2013] emerged around a mutual interest in sustainable material management,” says Jeff Weld, director of communications at Casella. “BD has always been a willing partner in understanding the balance between economic and environmental sustainability and has taken full advantage of our services and decades of expertise in this area.”

This year, BD and Casella have launched a pilot next-generation circularity program to extend recovery efforts to BD syringes discarded by health care facilities. According to BD, the pilot will assess feasibility of recycling these products back into the manufacturing process, creating additional local sourcing options and alleviating pressures on the supply chain system.

“Health care facilities are a major consumer of syringes and represent a key opportunity for reclaiming these products, which have been particularly difficult to recycle due to the various components and steps involved in the process, including safe handling of biohazardous material and treating and sterilizing materials before they can be reintroduced for recycling,” Lum says. “As leaders in our respective fields, BD and Casella are committed to helping build systems that enable short- and long-term value and sustainability because we know this work can make a lasting, positive impact. This pilot program is one step toward building a circular value chain for managing postconsumer health care plastics.”

The companies aim to determine best ways to handle hard-to-recycle materials, such as syringes, to determine the operational feasibility by way of mechanical or advanced recycling and the associated impacts. The pilot will focus on collection, treatment and scaling solutions while also evaluating a variety of mechanical and advanced recycling capabilities for processing BD products after disposal in health care settings.

“We are not limiting ourselves to any one outlet, partner or capability to produce a sustainable outcome,” Weld says of the various capabilities the pilot will assess. “This will help us to bring optionality, necessary redundancy and longevity to the program and help to determine the most economically and environmentally sustainable solutions.”

According to BD, pilot activity is being conducted at what it calls several strategic locations in North America where BD and Casella have existing relationships. BD reports that the initial pilot program results are expected to be released in the first half of 2023.

“As the idea of what it means to live in a circular economy gains momentum, we are uniquely positioned to help enable more people, businesses and industries achieve their circularity goals,” Casella CEO John Casella says. “This project is an example of what can happen when we invest alongside our customers to create innovative and operationally sound solutions that advance toward a common goal.”