Sustainability in anaesthesiology
HEINE is first again!
In close cooperation with our specialist for high-quality plastics, HEINE is the first manufacturer to succeed in implementing a recycling process for laryngoscope blades: discarded refrigerators are turned into accessories for a medical device. This was a very challenging task, as particularly strict regulations apply to products that come into direct contact with patients.
Do something right, or don’t do it at all.
We deliberately chose this type of plastic because HFCs and CFCs, which are extremely harmful to the climate, are captured when the refrigerators are recycled. These gases are hundreds, even thousands, of times more harmful to the climate than CO2. This explains the large CO2* equivalent savings of several tonnes per year.
What’s more, the injection mould for the blade is designed so that 0.0 grams of waste are generated during production.
How HEINE saves tonnes of CO2 with featherlight blades:
We use plastic from discarded refrigerators. And by recycling these refrigerators in a controlled manner, we save the environment 124 t of CO2eq* per tonne of recycled plastic used.
We also manufacture the HEINE blades for the visionPRO video laryngoscope on a machine that runs on green electricity generated from hydropower. Just like everything else at HEINE – from coffee machines and computers, to large production machines. Read more about our commitment to environmental protection in our CSR report.
Less is more.
And finally, we pack the blades in unbleached cardboard, which we print with just one single colour instead of four. The cardboard is FSC-certified** and comes from sustainably managed forests.
More is less.
And, by the way, if you order a box of 50 instead of 10, you save around another 12% of CO2eq from a cradle to gate*** standpoint by reducing the amount of packaging material required.
Our blades aren’t afraid of comparison.
Our blades’ environmental performance values aren’t just absolutely outstanding in and of themselves, but also in comparison with conventional plastic blades or video laryngoscope blades manufactured using a normal electricity mix. So this saves just under 80% in CO2 equivalent terms during production.
Like before. Only better.
We’ve naturally put the new blades through their paces. And we’ve come to the conclusion that the new, sustainable plastic meets all the particularly stringent requirements encountered in the medical devices sector for accessories.
And speaking of putting things through their paces, we’re true world champions in that respect. We think precision shouldn’t be a one-off. That’s why consistently high quality in production plays a decisive role. This is the only way we can achieve our high precision – not just once, but a thousand times over.
Read more about how obsessed we are with quality on our Quality made in Germany pages.
More Information
* The term ‘CO2eq’ (equivalent) is a unit of measurement that is used to measure the impact that various greenhouse gases have on the climate. [1] In addition to carbon dioxide, ‘greenhouse gases’ include methane, nitrous oxide and various hydrofluorocarbon compounds (HFC and CFC gases). Each of these substances has a different global warming potential. To permit a meaningful comparison of greenhouse gases in terms of the impact they have on the climate, they are converted to the climate impact that carbon dioxide has by means of their CO2 equivalent. Methane, for example, has a CO2 equivalent of 28. This means that the impact of methane gas on the climate is 28 times greater than the same amount of carbon dioxide released.
[1] Cf. Frischknecht (2020, p. 13) regarding this matter and the following
** FSC® stands for ‘Forest Stewardship Council®’. It is an international certification system for greater sustainability in forest management. The wood used for furniture, toys, books, exercise books and pencils that carry the FSC seal comes from responsibly managed forests. Source WWF: https://www.wwf.de/themen-projekte/waelder/verantwortungsvollere-waldnutzung/fsc-was-ist-das#:~:text=FSC%C2%AE%20steht%20f%C3%BCr%20%E2%80%9EForest,W%C3%A4ldern%2C%20die%20verantwortungsvoller%20bewirtschaftet%20werden.
*** Product evaluation is performed based on a cradle-to-gate approach, which means that all of the greenhouse gas emissions generated during product manufacturing are taken into account. Product manufacturing includes all of the processes involved in material extraction, transport and on-site processing through to dispatch.