Eradication of disposable plastics and Work on a cyclical society

Achievements and goals

(1)Reduction of disposable plastic: Removed plastic bottles from vending machines in our offices, installed water dispensers, and encouraged employees to bring their own bottles. Eliminated plastic straws, spoons and forks from the company cafeteria and replaced the containers with one made with bioplastic. Tumblers were distributed to all employees at the company-wide meeting in November 2019. Under the comprehensive partnership agreement with Osaka Prefecture signed on January 2021, we joined the "Osaka My Bottle Partners" in support of the mission of the "Osaka Plastic Waste Zero Declaration". Due to the change in the employees’ mindset, we cut the use of plastic bottles by 70% year over year in 2020.

(2)Copy paper reduction: Starting in 2018 we promoted digitization of internal approval processes and reduced paper use by 37% or 4.71 million sheets in 2020compared to the previous year. A total of 6.95 million sheets was cut cumulatively (equivalent to the height of the Tokyo Sky Tree when stacked).

(3)Recycling of to-be-disposed-of clear folders: In support of the Ministry of Environment's FY2020 Pilot Project for Establishing a Resource Recycling System for Plastics and Other Materials to Support a Decarbonized Society, we joined a social experiment to validate a recycling value chain conducted by ASKUL Corporation and collected one ton of clear folders (approximately 38,000 sheets) for recycling.

(4)Abolished the use of paper cups in the company cafeteria (Maihara Plant): Paper cups were removed from 2019, saving approximately 260 paper cups per day (about 1.3 cups/person).

(5)Used paper recycling (Maihara Plant): Cardboard and other waste paper discharged from the product packaging line are recycled into toilet paper. We have been donating 300 rolls to Maibara City every month.

In addition, the Maihara Plant is contributing to the local community by cleanup activities in the neighborhood of the plant (every month) and along the shore of Lake Biwa (once a year) to collect plastic waste (plastic bottles and other plastic products) and illegally damped waste.

URL introducing the initiative

https://www.astrazeneca.co.jp/responsibility/sustainability.html