ALMOST ALL THAT GLITTERS IS GOLD - Draeger
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SUSTAINABILITY
RECYCLING
ALMOST ALL THAT
GLITTERS IS GOLD
Medical and safety equipment requires high-performance
materials and metals. The Dräger waste management team takes raw materials
from decommissioned products and feeds them back into the circular economy.
TEXT CONSTANZE SANDERS PHOTOS PATRICK OHLIGSCHLÄGER
44 DRÄGER REVIEW 123 | 1 / 2021
NACHHALTIGKEIT
RECYCLING
PRECIOUS HARVEST Whether brass (left image),
copper, silver, or gold, electronic products are full of
metals that can be used again. Right: The separated
sensor used for performing alcohol breath tests in
the Dräger Interlock (left, above the device) contains
platinum, for example
F
gesetz or KrWG). “We get the best out of entire life cycles of its medical and safety
the waste and dispose of elements that can- equipment and beyond. “We do this volun-
not be recycled, while complying with the tarily with KrWG approval,” says the chem-
lorian Baer’s job is to think about legal regulations – to protect the environ- ist, “and we want to increase understand-
things starting from the end of their life. ment,” he says. Baer sees apparent waste ing.” Every year, two technicians dismantle
Old electronic devices, packaging mate- as a stream of valuable materials which, more than 100 tons of medical equipment,
rial, production waste: Everything that together with five colleagues, he diverts measuring technology, sensors, filters, and
ends up here in the product returns unit in new directions. other consumable materials from de-
has served its purpose. Industrial special- The sources for the raw materials are old vices that have been returned by customers.
ist Baer is head of waste management devices that customers no longer need. “We “We are certified as a primary facility
at Dräger Gebäude und Service GmbH, take back equipment that we manufacture for dealing with old equipment in accor-
which has two sites in Lübeck and is a ourselves,” says Dr. Michaela Schatz, envi- dance with the Electrical and Electronic
certified waste disposal facility in accor- ronmental officer at Dräger. The compa- Equipment Act,” says Florian Baer. Dräger
dance with Section 56 of Germany’s Cir- ny has taken responsibility for such prod- supports the disposal of such equipment
cular Economy Act (Kreislaufwirtschafts- ucts very seriously since the 1990s; for the with recycling passes and material lists,
DRÄGER REVIEW 123 | 1 / 2021 45
EFFICIENT RECYCLER
“Our disposal policy protects
the environment and is econom-
ically efficient with the maximum
possible recycling rate,” says
Florian Baer, head of waste
management at Dräger
TURNING WASTE INTO KEY RESOURCES
diagrams, and dismantling recommen- thousand of which have been taken back use of materials and their recyclability in
dations in line with the WEEE Directive from the French police, for example. All the product development stage. Blue and
2012/19/EU (Waste of Electrical and Elec- individual parts, testers, sensors, printed black recycling containers have been set
tronic Equipment). In the trolley of a ven- circuit boards, and housing elements are up at hospitals and industrial facilities for
tilator, around 15 kg of aluminum can be fed back into the cycle after being disman- years so that equipment can be returned
identified and recycled. The employees tled. Taking back products from outside in the correct manner.
primarily use their extensive experience Germany is a complex process in accor- Dräger largely remains unrivaled in
to determine what can be separated, but dance with European waste laws. “Howev- terms of offering such a service. “We have
they conduct tests if they are unsure. Fol- er, we also want to offer the service to our the experience and the expertise, because
lowing the initial rough dismantling pro- European customers,” says Dr. Michaela we know what the equipment contains,”
cess, steel, copper, and brass remain as Schatz. Until now, this has always involved says Florian Baer. “If required, we can take
alloys in other components. Mixed materi- complex notification processes and high care of the entire logistics and offer our
als, welded and glued parts, device waste, costs. The European Commission wants customers a complete package.” This is
and printed circuit boards are sent to ser- to revise the Waste Shipment Regulation made possible by the Dräger Waste Man-
vice providers that can separate and sort (WSR). “We are committed to making it agement Association, which was estab-
such components. “This helps us to make easier for the manufacturer to take respon- lished around twenty years ago. On behalf
sure that our electrical waste doesn’t end sibility for its products,” says Dr. Schatz. of its members, it handles all tasks relat-
up on illegal dumping sites,” says Baer. Dismantling old equipment is about creat- ing to eco-friendly, legal, and economi-
ing value and eliminating hazardous sub- cal waste management. The big Dräger
RECOVERING stances – as in the case of oxygen self-res- companies in Lübeck and other industrial
PRECIOUS METALS cuers, for example, which are used in the firms (a total of 26 businesses) send every-
Tiny amounts of gold and platinum can mining industry. A technician carefully dis- thing here that they no longer need. “We
be found in high-quality sensors: “The mantles the product by hand, removes the separate and sort the goods, keep the nec-
elements that glitter like gold are actual- cartridge that contains a chemical that pro- essary legal records, and produce reports
ly gold – mostly in the form of a thin coat- duces oxygen, and deactivates the starter. documenting the amount of waste,” says
ing that can nonetheless be recovered per- The plastics are labeled; these are sorted Baer. Rather than being a disposal busi-
fectly well.” After the sensors have been into their distinct types and then recycled. ness, Dräger Waste Management is actual-
taken back and dismantled free of charge, With up to eight tons each day, hospi- ly a service provider that works on behalf
they are sent to a metal recycling facility tals are the fifth-largest producers of waste of the association. “We send the materi-
where high-purity gold, silver, and plati- in Germany. On average, each patient al for recycling – or, if this is not possible,
num are recovered. Recyclable amounts produces around six kilos per day, three for disposal and landfill.”
of platinum can also be found in the sen- times more than a normal, healthy citizen. Dräger sampling tubes are constant-
sors fitted in the Alcotest devices, several Dräger begins focusing on the economical ly being used for the analysis of harmful
46 DRÄGER REVIEW 123 | 1 / 2021
SUSTAINABILITY
RECYCLING
substances. The reagent system contains sions, laws, regulations, and directives gov- risen, the total amount of waste produced
tiny amounts of different chemicals. Sub- erning the safe and clean disposal of waste. at Dräger has almost halved to a little over
stances that are subject to authorization Opt for recycling over disposal of goods – two tons of waste per million euros of sales.
requirements in accordance with the EU the Circular Economy Act adds this pre- EU directives are increasingly deter-
REACH Regulation have already been ferred order to the extensive nomencla- mining what is needed to save resources.
replaced by less harmful substances in ture. Every new waste code needs its own The European Commission has calculated
the production process. Used or expired approval: “Each for a limited period,” says that up to 80 percent of the environmental
Dräger tubes can be sent to Lübeck for Dr. Schatz, an expert in hazardous sub- impact of products can be traced back to the
recycling. Dräger also conducts research stances. “Extensions must be applied for design phase. Dräger starts out by consider-
to determine whether ventilation tubes on an individual basis.” The strict and ing how new instruments can be recycled
and filters can be manufactured from bio- ever-growing legal system in the disposal properly once they have served their pur-
plastic or recyclate. “Unfortunately, this industry is her specialist field. “We work pose, and pursues the long-term C2C (cra-
is where we are still reaching our lim- closely with the City of Lübeck.” In 2019, dle-to-cradle) principle, which is commit-
its, because the regulations for medical 3,900 metric tons of waste accrued at ted to cyclical reuse of raw materials rather
products are very strict,” says Dr. Schatz. Dräger in Lübeck, with a recycling rate than linear use. Since 2015, there has been
There is generally no guarantee that recy- of almost 96 percent. “Hazardous waste a systematic monitoring program for mate-
clate meets the same quality requirements like solvents and leftover paint and lac- rials whose legal restriction is foreseeable
as new plastic. And compared to conven- quer go to special incineration plants,” or under discussion. “Sustainable prod-
tional plastic, the production of bioplas- says Baer. “Just a small amount of leftover ucts will be the norm in the future,” says
tic is expensive. waste ends up in landfill, such as asbes- the Lithuanian Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU
tos or insulating materials.” However, at Commissioner for the Environment. The
COMPLEX LEGAL SYSTEM the very top of the five-tier waste hierar- right to repair set out in the EU’s Circular
There are at least 35 overriding local, chy of the KrWG (Section 6) is the preven- Economy Blueprint is a fundamental prin-
regional, national, and EU legal provi- tion of waste. Since 2009, while sales have ciple at Dräger. Professional maintenance
COLLECTING
RAW MATERIALS
Returned aluminum filters prior
to shredding. Right: soda lime
in bulk in the disposal yard
DRÄGER REVIEW 123 | 1 / 2021 47
SUSTAINABILITY
RECYCLING
PROFESSIONALLY
DISMANTLED
Employee Enrico Schernau
takes apart an oxygen self-
rescuer in the product returns
unit in Lübeck, northern
Germany. Dräger disposes
of damaged, opened, used,
and expired products
SEPARATED FOR THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
and repairs are carried out worldwide involved, it becomes a bulk material which recycle them at specialist companies; this
so that customers benefit from machines accumulates in the disposal yard. Once it amounts to several hundred tons a year at
with a long service life. has been processed, some of it is used in Dräger. Although the energy gain is consid-
Many a material requires a complete agriculture to improve the soil. The Dräger erable, for Baer it is only the second-best
solution. A patient is anesthetized for an disposal yard handled several hundred tons solution. He is interested in the recovery
operation in Germany around 18 million of soda lime waste in 2019. Active carbon and reuse of materials, whether as pack-
times a year. Each anesthesia machine from mask filters can also be used for a aging or in logistics and storage systems,
contains a plastic cartridge with soda second purpose: Dräger delivers the used as flower and drinks boxes, film, window
lime in order to bind CO2 (carbon diox- granules to the metalworking industry frames, or watering cans made from recy-
ide) from the exhaled air. “Since 2015, as a reducing agent in smelting furnaces, clate. “Our secondary raw materials are
the Regional Working Group on Waste thereby ensuring that the life cycle of the dependent on national and international
(Bund/Länder-Arbeitsgemeinschaft Abfall raw material ends as responsibly as it markets and the corresponding prices.”
or LAGA) has classified soda lime as haz- began. The active carbon is made from Agreements with the waste generators on
ardous waste,” says chemist Schatz. Sepa- the shells of coconuts – a renewable raw the amount paid for quantities of waste
rate collection and appropriate documen- material. The aluminum filters are col- are assessed and adjusted on a monthly
tation have been obligatory ever since. The lected, shredded, and sent to a recycler basis. Since 2019, the German Packaging
dry chemical product must be replaced as metal shreds. Act (Verpackungsgesetz) requires a recy-
approximately every four weeks, because cling rate of 58.5 percent, rising to 63 by
it gradually loses its absorption ability. SUPPLIER OF 2022. To date, there has been no reliable
Dräger provides a comprehensive collec- SECONDARY RAW MATERIALS market for recyclate that would enable the
tion and recycling concept for soda lime Even though medical equipment only higher rates to feed into a functioning cir-
ILLUSTRATION: REDAKTION 4 (SOURCE: ISTOCK, SHUT TERSTOCK)
(Type: Drägersorb 800+) and cartridges. accounts for around three percent of annu- cular economy. In addition, Hamburg Cir-
Hospitals collect the used containers in al global plastic production, high-perfor- plus was launched in March 2020. This is
recycling drums, which are then well mance plastic is leading in terms of inno- a freely accessible stock exchange for sec-
sealed and returned to Dräger as soon as vative use – whether for disposable items, ondary plastic that already has a volume
they are full. “The customer can be sure implants, or diagnostic aids. “We sort plas- of 500,000 tons. Plastic in every grade of
that they have found a clean and legal tics in abundance,” says Florian Baer. Only purity is traded here. A yellow bag can be
means of disposal. This saves both time and correctly sorted plastic – unpainted, with bought for just one cent. “When it comes to
money,” says Dr. Schatz. An employee in no plasticizers or adhesions – can be mar- waste management in an industrial firm,
the product returns department removes keted well. “There is currently barely a it is not about earning money,” stresses
the used chemical from the carton, which market in Germany for the colorful mix of Florian Baer. “We want to save money –
is then shredded and thermally recycled. different polymers.” If there are no takers, for our customers too – while protecting
Due to the large amounts of soda lime the only remaining option is to thermally the environment.”
48 DRÄGER REVIEW 123 | 1 / 2021
Dräger product returns
Based on the example of soda lime: Anesthesia machines contain plastic cartridges filled with soda lime,
which binds CO 2 from the exhaled air. Soda lime has been classified as hazardous waste since 2015 and must be
disposed of separately from the cartridges. What’s more, documentation is required. That is the job of
Dräger’s waste management unit. The customer collects the used cartridges in recycling drums.
RETURNS
Customer gives the full recycling drums
S
) INE back or arranges collection. Dräger supplies
ER H
drums. Long-term recycling loop.
M AC
TO M
U SIA
(C E
S
TH
ES
AN
DELIVERY
S
Dräger supplies the empty
RN
RE R
drums on request.
TU
T E
C G
U Ä
D R
O D
AMOUNT RETURNED
PR
(tons; 2019)
DISMANTLING
Plastic cartridges and contents
separated in the product returns unit.
2 Test tubes
3 Oxygen self-rescuers
25 Medical
40 Breathing
40 Active
RAW MATERIAL COLLECTION
41 Lime products Soda lime is sent from the
collection point to the disposal
specialist.
INCINERATION
PRODUCT RESPONSIBILITY Cartridges are sent for
Dräger actively takes back almost all of its own
thermal recycling.
products, thereby boosting the circular economy.
Due to the exemption granted as per Section 26
KrWG on voluntary returns, the customer is exempt
from registration, licensing, and labeling obligations.
Medical and measurement equipment and consum- REUSE
ables are dismantled and separated by material The material is processed for use as
in Lübeck and passed onto disposal specialists. soil improver in agriculture, for example.
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