Waste and circularity

From the lab to the patient, we are integrating more circular approaches into the discovery, development and delivery of medicines, including with the latest technologies and innovation.

Our approach to the circular economy

We aim to reduce waste by 20% by the end of 2025 from a 2015 baseline

We recognise that circular business approaches are key to supporting a healthy environment. Through science-based solutions and circular economy principles, we are innovating to drive responsible sourcing and efficient resource use across our value chain. We implement efficiency projects, partner with stakeholders, engage with suppliers, and design out waste to decouple waste generation from business growth.

We leverage our experience with lean manufacturing to enhance efficiency and eliminate waste – embedding recognised best practices from partners such as My Green Lab into our business. Employees across our global network are empowered to identify and implement ideas that contribute to our environmental targets.

We are also embedding sustainable decision-making across the life cycle of the medicines we produce. As part of our overall product sustainability approach, we set resource efficiency targets for our development teams to meet at product launch.

In 2023, we introduced a new internal metric to measure the waste circularity rate across our sites. Applied together with our global waste reduction target, this metric focuses efforts at the top of the waste hierarchy and drives improvements in circularity outside AstraZeneca through the re-use or repurposing of waste materials and increased recycling.

Plastics

While plastic materials and components are critical for medical production, quality, and safety, tackling plastic pollution is key to healthier future. Following our Plastics Hierarchy, we consider ways to eliminate, reduce, substitute and integrate circular approaches to minimise the plastic footprint across our value chain. An area of focus is our medicine blister packs; we are trialling mono-polypropylene (PP) to transition our blister packaging from PVC-grade plastics towards a more widely-recycled plastic.

Circularity in action across our value chain and beyond

Recycling liquid helium: Liquid helium is a vital component of superconducting magnets used in research. A scarce, business-critical resource, it is typically procured as a by-product of natural gas production. Our R&D site in Gothenburg, Sweden, recycles and reuses 90-95% of its liquid helium, helping to conserve this non-renewable resource.

Repurposing silica waste: At our Coppell, Texas site in the US, we've cut landfill waste by approximately 80% and supported the circular economy by redirecting waste for re-use in the construction sector. Production processes at Coppell previously generated large amounts of silica waste with a high water content, which was disposed of in landfills. By investing in an on-site Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), we now separate silica from the water, enabling the water to be further treated and eventually reintroduced to the city water supply.

Transforming food and farm waste: We're partnering with Vanguard Renewables to power our US sites with biomethane from food waste and dairy manure sourced from local, family-owned farms. By 2026, this collaboration will supply up to 36% of our global gas consumption with biomethane. Biomethane production generates low-carbon, nutrient-rich fertiliser, reducing farms’ reliance on chemical alternatives, and also produces by-products for animal bedding.

Recovering heat from wastewater: In Södertälje, Sweden, heat pumps recover water from an onsite wastewater treatment plant for reuse, saving 5 GWh annually since 2023. In addition, at our R&D site in Gothenburg, Sweden, a next-generation very high temperature heat-pump recovers waste heat and generates steam, eliminating the need for fossil-based natural gas.

Establishing takeback schemes: In Sweden, through a takeback scheme in 19 pharmacies – in collaboration with Apoteket – Turbuhaler plastic covers are collected, recycled and made into new material for cable drums.

Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA): We are founding members of the CBA, a collaborative platform that facilitates public-private partnerships to accelerate the transition to a circular bioeconomy. Through our global AZ Forest programme, we are supporting the CBA to build a global network of ‘Living Labs’ – pilot projects to develop sustainable value chains based on regenerating landscapes and building sustainable livelihoods.