How We Implement Sustainability

The products Röchling Medical manufactures and the services we provide are bound by high regulatory standards. Therefore, conventional sustainability solutions at product level such as the use of bio-based or recycled materials are often still difficult or impossible to implement for us. This makes the responsible use of plastics through optimized product design and manufacturing processes all the more important.

Our goal is to act sustainably through a variety of activities. These range from innovative building management and material savings to more sustainable design and production processes and provisions for the health and safety of our employees. Learn more about some of those measures below.

Energy-Efficient Cold Storage System

With the construction of the new production hall at our site in Neuhaus am Rennweg, Germany, an energy-efficient cold storage system has been planned for the new building in order to save energy resources over the long term and reduce CO2 emissions. Under this concept, the firefighting water tank for the sprinkler system, with a volume of approx. 2,000 m³, is brought down to a low temperature during the night to serve as a cold storage device, while the energy obtained in this way is used to supply the production lines with cooling water during the day. In this way, peak load energy consumption and CO2 emissions are reduced by >25%.

Sustainable Energy Storage

A battery storage system was also installed at our Neuhaus site. This stores energy at times of surplus and makes it available when demand increases, thus relieving the power grid and ensuring more efficient energy use by avoiding power losses.

At our German Medical locations in Brensbach, Neuhaus am Rennweg and Waldachtal, process-related waste heat is also used via heat recovery to supply the administrative buildings and other adjacent areas.

Zero Pellet Loss

The use of recycled materials in our Medical division is still almost impossible due to regulatory reasons. This makes the responsible use of plastics through optimized product design and the avoidance of plastic residues all the more important. The German Medical locations in Neuhaus am Rennweg and Brensbach are part of the Zero Pellet Loss initiative of the German Association for Plastics Packaging and Films (Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen e.V.). The members of this initiative take proactive measures to continuously minimize the loss of plastic granulates in production processes.

Closing the Loop

In the Medical division, the use of recycled materials is only possible to a very limited extent due to regulatory requirements. As far as possible for the specific product and if approved by our customers, we recycle plastic residues in extrusion blow molding that cannot be avoided for technological reasons directly into ongoing production in a closed loop. Production waste that cannot be used for our own products is, where possible, supplied to our Industrial division for reuse or otherwise fed into the recycling loop.