- In partnership with Heritage Environmental Services
- Positive environmental impact
- Traceable and certified program
- Streamlined process
September 20, 2011, Billerica, MA — EMD Millipore, the Life Science division of Merck KGaA of Germany, today announced it has launched ech2o – the first collection and recycling program for EMD Millipore laboratory water purification consumables.
Each year, companies discard thousands of used water purification cartridges that are incinerated or buried in landfills. Developed in cooperation with Heritage Environmental Services, the ech2o program allows U.S. users of EMD Millipore lab water purification systems to return exhausted cartridges for dismantling.
The program builds on the environmental sustainability advances already in place at EMD Millipore, and will have a positive effect on the environment. Environmental impact will be reduced by 10-12% for the overall cartridge life cycles, depending on the type of purification cartridge.
“As the largest supplier of point-of-use laboratory water systems, we have a responsibility to our customers, and to our industry, to lead the way in environmental stewardship,” said Renaud Bardon, EMD Millipore Head of Lab Water Sales and Service for North America. “We believe this program will make EMD Millipore a more desirable business partner, while continuing to advance the company’s sustainability strategy. A distinguishing aspect of the ech2o program is that the entire process is traceable and certified,” he explained. “There are other sustainability programs available today, but few are authentic and traceable. EMD Millipore and Heritage Environmental Services have a long-standing commitment to quality, and it was important to both companies to offer a truly traceable and certified collection and recycling solution.”
“Traceability is the underlying principle of the program,” added Stéphane Mabic, Merck Millipore Application Manager and Sustainability Initiative Project Manager. “It begins with user identification via the EMD Millipore website, increases with barcode identification of the cartridge during transport, and continues right up to the auditable Heritage waste management site where cartridges are recycled. To complete the traceability aspect, we also had a third party specialized in life cycle assessment (LCA) perform a full LCA of the cartridges. Information regarding the cartridge LCAs and the assessment method is available on our website in the ISO® 14021 self-certification section,” he concluded.
A streamlined web-based process makes it easy for users to return cartridges, and the program has been adapted for small- and large-volume users.
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About EMD Millipore
EMD Millipore is the Life Science division of Merck KGaA of Germany and offers a broad range of innovative, performance products, services and business relationships that enable our customers' success in research, development and production of biotech and pharmaceutical drug therapies. Through dedicated collaboration on new scientific and engineering insights, and as one of the top three R&D investors in the Life Science Tools industry, EMD Millipore serves as a strategic partner to customers and helps advance the promise of life science.
Headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, the division has around 10,000 employees, operations in 67 countries and 2010 revenues of $2.2 billion. EMD Millipore is known as Merck Millipore outside of the U.S. and Canada.
About Heritage Environmental Services
Heritage Environmental Services, LLC is one of the country's largest full-service environmental firms. Headquartered in Indianapolis and with locations throughout the United States, Heritage is a company that has a rich history of providing sustainable solutions for some of yesterday’s and today's most challenging environmental problems. We specialize in the compliant handling and treatment of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes and byproducts. We work with companies across many industries offering a variety of services such as waste treatment & disposal, a nationwide transportation network, laboratory testing, industrial maintenance, lab pack, product recovery, product manufacturing and byproduct management. Our commitment has always been to our customers because they are the engine that has helped to foster a culture of innovation at Heritage. Through this ingenuity, Heritage continues to find better ways to serve its customers and the community, while always maintaining the highest regard for the environment.
Millipore is a registered trademark of, and ech2o is a trademark of Millipore Corporation. EMD Millipore and the M mark are trademarks of Merck KGaA. ISO is a registered trademark of the International Organization for Standardization.
Note: Merck KGaA or Merck shall mean Merck KGaA, Darmstadt,Germany
Contact:
Axelle de Foucault Mercier
Phone: +33 (0) 1 30 12 71 46
Email: [email protected]