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As part of a joint commitment between Veolia North America and MassBio, GreenLabs is able to create hyperlocal, first-of-its-kind process for fully recycling plastic lab containers within 60-mile radius of Boston
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Boston, MA - In the Greater Boston area, the nation’s largest hub for biotechnical innovation, global environmental services leader Veolia has partnered with MassBio and GreenLabs Recycling to support an innovative regionally-focused solution for recycling container lab plastics used in facilities that manage medical waste.
Under an agreement recently completed with GreenLabs and Veolia, the recycling solution for lab plastics is now being put in place, using the medical waste processing center that Veolia operates in Middleton, Massachusetts to aggregate the plastic for GreenLabs. This reduces the need to dispose of lab plastics in landfills, and also helps address the growing challenge around properly managing plastic waste, which has been intensifying in recent years due to restrictive global market conditions.
The plastics recycling idea in Massachusetts was conceived by GreenLabs, a startup innovator based in Concord, about 20 miles outside Boston. GreenLabs’ solution works by creating a hyperlocal recycling and manufacturing ecosystem for lab plastic consumables. GreenLabs recycles pipette tip boxes into a lab product they manufacture outside of Boston called a tips transfer bin. Scientists in the lab use these bins so they can see what their plastic is being turned into every time they deposit their used tips into these benchtop bins made from 100 percent recycled plastic.
The lab plastics designated for GreenLabs recycling are shipped from the location of the waste generator to the Veolia Middleton facility, where the plastics are consolidated to ship to GreenLabs’ recycling facility in Concord. The lab plastics are separated, granulated, and prepared for the 100-percent recycled plastic molding process. The granulated plastic material is then transformed into the transfer bins using their molds at a nearby plastic molding facility, keeping the circular economy solution hyperlocal and within a 50-mile radius of one of the world’s largest life science hubs.
“Veolia could not be more pleased to support Sam White and his innovative start-up through our partnerships with MassBio and GreenLabs, which is consistent with Veolia’s global GreenUp strategy for growth and innovation,” said Bob Cappadona, President and CEO of Veolia North America’s Environmental Solutions and Services business, which oversees the company’s medical waste management services. “This is a unique partnership in which each organization has something of great value to contribute, and that helps bring greater sustainability to our industry.”
Once he and his team developed their idea, GreenLabs CEO Sam White knew he would need partners with expansive resources and a stellar reputation within biotech to help scale the recycling solution and divert more plastic from ending up in landfills. He began his search by connecting with MassBio, the leading biotech association in Massachusetts and one of the largest and most influential biotech networks in the country, with hundreds of leading global medical and biotech companies among its membership. MassBio was quick to connect GreenLabs with Veolia, which has been providing environmental services to MassBio member organizations for over 20 years.
“We have listened to our members and we are happy to have forged this partnership on their behalf,” said Jason Cordeiro, Chief Operating Officer for MassBio.
Veolia is the leading waste management resource for biotech firms in Massachusetts. Through its GreenUp strategy for growth and innovation to achieve environmental sustainability, Veolia is driven to support innovative solutions like the GreenLabs recycling concept that lead to greater sustainability within industries and muncipalities. Veolia strives to create a strong innovation ecosystem consisting of partnerships with universities, accelerators and startups.
“I was fortunate to have strong levels of support that have made this process a success,” said White.“This partnership helps us realize our vision for good ideas that make the planet a cleaner place.”
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ABOUT VEOLIA NORTH AMERICA
A subsidiary of Veolia group, Veolia North America (VNA) is the top-ranked environmental company in the United States for three consecutive years, and the country’s largest private water operator and technology provider as well as hazardous waste and pollution treatment leader. It offers a full spectrum of water, waste, and energy management services, including water and wastewater treatment, commercial and hazardous waste collection and disposal, energy consulting and resource recovery. VNA helps commercial, industrial, healthcare, higher education, and municipality customers throughout North America. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., Veolia North America has more than 10,000 employees working at more than 350 locations across the continent.
www.veolianorthamerica.com
ABOUT VEOLIA GROUP
Veolia group aims to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. Present on five continents with nearly 218,000 employees, the Group designs and deploys useful, practical solutions for the management of water, waste and energy that are contributing to a radical turnaround of the current situation. Through its three complementary activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, to preserve available resources and to renew them. In 2023, the Veolia group provided 113 million inhabitants with drinking water and 103 million with sanitation, produced 42 million megawatt hours of energy and treated 63 million tonnes of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) achieved consolidated revenue of 45,351 million euros in 2023.
www.veolia.com
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CONTACT
Matt Burgard
(203) 859-4168
[email protected]