How can pharma take on plastics?!

How can pharma take on plastics?!

Plastics in the pharma sector are currently indispensable materials, as they are used for laboratories and manufacturing facilities, avoiding the (cross-)contamination of medicines. Hence protecting the patients safety and the contamination of staff working with novel compounds and medicines in development or production.

Why does this matter?

Unfortunately, the treatment of plastic waste is not keeping up with the increased demand for plastic products. Countries struggle to process the waste, and not all the used PPEs and packaging materials are handled or recycled. This mismanaged plastic waste may then be discharged into the environment, and a portion reaches the ocean. In our projects at seven clean seas, we have found evidence of this during our cleanups:

ten23 health, the new human-centric and sustainable CDMO (in other words, provides drug development and manufacturing services) is fully aware of the impact the pharmaceutical industry may have on the environment. The benefits and functionality of the material necessarily means that some plastic material waste is currently unavoidable in lab operations and sterile manufacturing (e.g. consumables, disposables) as materials such as tubing and pipette tip caps cannot be re-used in order to avoid cross-contamination.

So what can we do, when it comes to unavoidable plastics?

ten23 health is committed to minimizing plastic waste first and foremost with their fairstainability team monitoring its current use of plastic as well as identifying ways to reduce its future usage. The “gap” between reduction and complete elimination is then, in the interim, ‘plugged’ through a partnership with Seven Clean Seas, to further their commitment to the environment. ten23 health demonstrates that it is possible for the pharma sector to embrace sustainability. By partnering with companies like Seven Clean Seas or sponsoring beach clean-ups, pharmaceutical companies could offset their unavoidable plastics and really make an impact on plastic waste reduction.

‘For us, sustainability means having a focus on both the planet and people. It means considering everything we do as a company, what our suppliers do, and what is being done with our services and products – and how all these things affect the world around us. We consider the impact and harm we may do, and how we can reduce, reuse, recycle, and develop other solutions. Only as a last resort do we consider offsetting. You can focus both on the patient and sustainability – for the benefit of patients, all people, and the planet.’ - Hanns-Christian Mahler, CEO of ten23 health.

We sat down with Hanns-Christian, CEO & Board Member at ten23 health, to understand why he wanted to embark on such an impactful partnership with Seven Clean Seas.

1. Why is it important for businesses, even pharmaceutical companies, to take charge in the fight against plastic waste?

‘Plastic is omnipresent in all our lives, private and business. In pharmaceutical companies, it is unfortunately yet unavoidable to use plastic in labs and manufacturing, as plastic disposables (like pipette tips or tubings) are used to avoid product cross-contaminations.’

2. Why did ten23 health choose to partner with Seven Clean Seas for their impact goals?

‘There is so much focus on CO2 emissions (for good reason), but Sustainability is much more. Avoiding plastics, but also trying to pull all these human-made contaminants from nature is just a great cause. I personally came across Seven Clean Seas before and supported it with some donations. Having visited Singapore and Malaysia before, I have great memories of nature in these countries. I am impressed with Seven Clean Sea’s dedication to pull plastics from beaches and water and it was kind of obvious to also support with our company.’

3. How have new recruits reacted to this partnership and the impact behind it?

‘It is not about a single partnership. I believe it is about values and beliefs and operating accordingly. Generally speaking, I think that both current and new colleagues appreciate the efforts we make. Having said that, sustainability and related partnerships should not focus on benefits for recruitment.’

4. What are ten23 health’s big sustainability goals and what do they want to achieve in the next year?

‘We started our company in mid-2021. Whilst supporting all SDGs, we have prioritized five for our business, and identified a number of areas and actions we want to progress with. We established our measurement and tracking in 2021 and offsetting and initiated various projects for reduction already and plan to soon post our first Fairstainability report.’