Material resource efficiency

Waste generation

The amounts of hazardous and other waste that our activities have generated in recent years are shown in the table below.

Overall, the amount of waste produced has reduced from last year although, the indexed target figures have increased based on decreasing revenue and some facility changes in the year. We have made good progress in 2012 towards our targets to increase the amount of waste sent for reuse, recycling and material recovery and to reduce the amount of non-hazardous waste sent to landfill.

A number of projects are being implemented by our facilities to ensure progress towards our waste reduction targets. A solvent recovery unit will be operational at our Avlon site in 2013 that will significantly reduce hazardous waste volumes.

Waste disposal routes for our hazardous and other waste in 2012 are shown in the chart below. It should be noted that these figures do not include the very large amount of material reused and recycled within our facilities, such as solvent recovery and reuse, since this material is excluded from our definition of waste.

Construction waste

AstraZeneca recognises that waste also arises as the result of construction and demolition activities at our sites and we aim to dispose of this in a sustainable way. Annual data for construction/demolition waste has therefore been collated and this shows that 4.0 thousand tonnes were generated during 2012 of which 87% was sent for material recovery or reuse. The vast majority of all the construction waste generated (>99%) was non-hazardous.

To illustrate our approach in 2012, working with our waste management partner, we reviewed the way construction waste was managed from office refurbishment type projects at our Alderley Park site in the UK. This resulted in a 30% cost saving and achieved zero disposal to landfill. This example of best practice has been widely shared across our engineering community.

Solvent use and emissions

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) or solvents are released to air primarily from the use of solvents in manufacturing processes and research and development activities. Reporting of our consumption and emission of VOCs is divided into two categories; non-halogenated VOCs that account for the majority of our use and halogenated VOCs that are generally considered to have a higher environmental impact.

We minimise emissions to air by using VOC abatement equipment including technologies such as catalytic oxidation, low-temperature cryogenic condensation and adsorption of pollutants on activated carbon.

During 2012 our facilities used 11 thousand tonnes of solvents, a decrease of 18% from 2011.
Emissions of VOCs over the same period totaled 343 tonnes, an increase of 10% from 2011. Our emissions represent a very small fraction (<5%) of the total amount of consumed solvent.
Halogenated solvent use (267 tonnes) and related VOC emissions (5 tonnes) make up a small portion of these totals.

Other air emissions

NOx, SOx and particulate (PM10) emissions, which contribute to acid rain and local air pollution, have been calculated from the data on all fuel used at our sites and in our vehicle fleet (see carbon footprint for details), using published emission factors obtained from the UK NAEI Emission Factor Database. Emissions of NOx were 218 tonnes in 2012. Similarly, SOx emissions have been calculated as 10 tonnes and PM10 16 tonnes. NOx has decreased by 20% and SOx and PM10 have decreased by 42% and 20% respectively from 2011.

Emissions of other air pollutants are monitored locally at our sites where this is relevant. Quantities are not tracked globally because emission of these pollutants from our activities is insignificant at a company level.