Waste Management

Small steps, big impact
Producing goods of any kind unavoidable involves waste. To reduce the quantity of waste generated and protect both the environment and natural resources, we hold regular training sessions worldwide to ensure that everyone involved becomes aware of how to prevent unnecessary waste and how to recycle properly. Beyond that, we are always looking for new technical solutions and partners that enable us to recycle as much as possible.

The tesa plant in Offenburg drove forward the project “Active Environmental Protection through Reduced Waste and Energy Use”, which was successfully launched in 2009. As in the area of energy, the project’s motto is also “Small steps, big impact”. Striking communications measures raise staff awareness of the issue and, when combined with incentives offered as part of employees’ variable bonuses, help to involve all affected departments in the problem-solving process and prompt employees to proactively make and implement suggestions for improvements. Other locations like Suzhou/China have meanwhile adopted the issue of waste reduction in their target agreements and linked it to the payment of the variable bonus. The location in Italy will be adopting this procedure in the coming year.

tesa’s Offenburg plant put a whole host of other suggested improvements into practice in 2011. Among other things, the location installed a facility that makes tearing open bags of raw materials easier and ensures that virtually all of the content goes into production by means of vibration. Prior to this, a residual amount often remained in the bags following emptying. Other projects and their results: Mass losses incurred when starting up the coating facility for the production of tesa Powerstrips® have been halved by switching to a double shift operation and a more efficient use of materials by optimizing coating and cutting widths.