Plastics Stewardship: A Commitment to Continuous Improvement

As part of our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility, Intralox is undertaking a global, cross-functional initiative to continuously improve the environmental sustainability of our plastic products. This initiative is inspired by the values of our Business Philosophy and includes specific, measurable goals to ensure we deliver these long-term environmental benefits.

Values

These values will inform and orient all plastics stewardship efforts.

Continuous Improvement

Continuously improving our technologies and operations is critical to plastics stewardship. Only through this iterative process can we achieve our plastics stewardship goals.

Customer Value

Our products and services enable our customers to do more with less, improving productivity and eliminating waste. Plastics stewardship will continue to deliver this value to our customers.

Integrity

We will hold ourselves accountable by using clear, objective metrics to carefully measure our progress in achieving our goals. We will publicly report on those metrics wherever practical.

Goals

Working with the end in mind, our stewardship projects aim to achieve three core goals.

Build the Best Products with the Best Materials

Intralox has pioneered some of the longest-lasting, lightest, and most hygienic belts on the market. Each of these attributes provides significant environmental benefits that would not be possible without the use of high-quality, durable plastics. And unlike many industrial plastics, most of the plastics that Intralox uses are recyclable.

We’re working to provide our customers with more options for sustainable materials. We are in the early stages of exploring whether we can source materials manufactured with processes or materials that put less strain on the environment, such as plastics made with recaptured methane.

Our long-term goal is to develop the advanced materials and designs required to meet our customers’ growing demand for environmentally sustainable products.

Reduce Plastic Waste in Manufacturing

Intralox has built systems across the globe to minimize plastic production waste. In 2019, we diverted 3,240 tons of plastic scrap from landfills. We captured 22% of this scrap for internal reuse and recycled the remainder through a third-party partner.

We’re working to further reduce plastic production waste. Our recent activation of Operation Clean Sweep®, for instance, will help us contain plastic pellets used to make our belts.

Our long-term goal is a completely closed-loop system for plastic production waste.

Improve End-of-Life Solutions for Our Plastic Belting

Intralox partners with established recyclers to support customer belt recycling in the United States and China.

We’re working to improve and expand environmentally sustainable end-of-life solutions for all Intralox customers. This is a complex challenge, but we have begun to identify belt recycling options outside the U.S. and China, and we are increasing awareness of current recycling options.

Our long-term goal is to ensure that all customers can make use of the most effective recycling options available to them.


At Intralox, we think long term. We are fully committed to collaborating with our employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to create more sustainable products and innovative sustainable manufacturing processes.

Download a copy of the Intralox Plastics Stewardship Statement

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