Alcon has announced the expansion of the partnership with Plastic Bank – an organization that builds recycling ecosystems in under-developed communities to fight plastic pollution while providing collection members with a path out of poverty. For each ton of plastic introduced in the marketplace, Plastic Bank will collect an equivalent amount of ocean-bound plastic in vulnerable coastal communities. In 2022, Plastic Bank removed more than 649,000 kilograms (kg) of plastic waste from the environment to offset the plastic used by Alcon for select Surgical and Vision Care products.1 Alcon aims to support the plastic removal of more than 990,000 kg in 2023 – the equivalent of stopping more than 49 million plastic bottles* from reaching the ocean this year.1
Beyond environmental impact, Alcon’s partnership with Plastic Bank will help more than 330 collection communities globally in 2023.2 Collection members exchange the plastic they collect for life-improving benefits such as health insurance, grocery vouchers and school supplies.
“While single-use plastics are essential to the safety and convenience of medical products, we strive to minimize their impact on the environment by supporting important initiatives like this program with Plastic Bank,’” said Charles Herget, Head of ESG at Alcon. “Our hope with this continued partnership is to further promote the offset of waste with the products in our Surgical and Vision Care portfolio to make an even greater impact on our sustainability efforts. We will also continue to minimize other product-related plastics, such as packaging and shipping materials.”
In 2022, Plastic Bank’s program with both the Surgical and Vision Care products helped remove the equivalent of more than 32 million plastic bottles.1
Specifically, Plastic Bank’s program with Alcon Surgical products helped extract 42,672 kg of ocean-bound plastic, equivalent to more than 2 million plastic bottles.1 Through the 2023 collaboration, all plastic used in Ultrasert® and AutonoMe® preloaded intraocular lens delivery systems will continue to be offset by collecting an equivalent amount of ocean-bound plastic waste. In addition to the plastic waste extraction program via the Plastic Bank partnership, Alcon developed the Green Innovations Surgical Team (GreenIST) program that is also working with Alcon’s Research and Development team to eliminate up to 90% of packaging and shipping waste across the company’s major global products.
For its Vision Care products, Alcon offset its plastic footprint for DAILIES TOTAL1® and PRECISION1® in 2022, which removed more than 600,000 kg of plastic, preventing the equivalent of 30 million plastic bottles from contributing to coastal pollution.1
Building on these efforts, for 2023, Alcon has extended its offset program to include Systane® Eye Drops sold across more than 30 markets, including Australia, Egypt, France, New Zealand and United Arab Emirates. This represents 150,856 kg of plastics, equivalent to over 7.5 million plastic bottles, that will be prevented from reaching the ocean this year.1 In total, Alcon’s DAILIES TOTAL1, TOTAL30®, PRECISION1 and Systane programs are set to achieve plastic neutrality across more than 90 countries globally.3
Alcon’s partnership with Plastic Bank complements the global eye care company’s larger efforts to reduce waste, emissions and chemicals of concern associated with Alcon’s products and services.
To learn more about how Alcon is reducing the environmental impact of its products, visit alcon.com. For more information about Alcon’s collaboration with Plastic Bank, visit https://plasticbank.com/client/alcon/.
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Plastic Bank® and Social Plastic® are trademarks of The Plastic Bank Recycling Corporation.
*1 KG collected is equivalent to 50 plastic bottles prevented
References
- Alcon data on file, 2023.
- Plastic Bank Impact Dashboard, Alcon data on file, last accessed 11 Jan 2023.
- Internal data (Projected use in our DAILIES TOTAL1®, DAILIES TOTAL1® multifocal, DAILIES TOTAL1® for Astigmatism, TOTAL30®, TOTAL30® for Astigmatism, PRECISION1™ and PRECISION1™ for Astigmatism contact lenses in 2023 worldwide besides the U.S., Canada and Japan).
