Careful handling of plastic

Recycling and careful use of raw materials in production.

Geberit is attempting to prevent the loss of plastic granules in production and to reuse plastics wherever possible.

Geberit manufactures high-quality products made from plastic. In doing so, the product material is used in a purposeful and economical way. Plastic offers many benefits as it is light, robust and durable.

Recycling plastics

Scrap arising from production in Rapperswil-Jona (CH) is collected and recycled. Furthermore, recycled plastic regranulate is also used for certain components, including the mounting frames for actuator plates and various components installed in fill and flush valves. The volumes are growing all the time, with around 1,000 tonnes of plastic regranulate currently processed across the Geberit Group each year.

Geberit purchases the recycled material – primarily ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) that has been recovered from electronic scrap – in the same way as new plastic granules and then shapes it into the desired form via injection moulding. However, the anthracite grey colour of the plastic limits the possible uses and means it cannot be used on visible parts.

The careful handling of plastic is part of Geberit’s long-standing sustainability strategy.

Every granule counts

Another objective is ensuring that plastic granules used in production do not pollute the environment. To reinforce these efforts, Geberit joined the Operation Clean Sweep (OCS) initiative at the end of 2020. OCS is an international initiative promoted by the plastics industry dedicated to preventing the loss of plastic granules, flakes and powder and ensuring that they do not pollute the environment.

All Geberit plastic-processing plants are participating in this initiative and are required to implement improvements to avoid the loss of granulate.