Kimberly-Clark Professional* and TerraCycle Expand Industry's First Cleanroom and Laboratory Garment Recycling Initiative to Include Pilot Program for Gloves

Expect garment collections to exceed 175 tons in coming months; Successfully trialing glove recycling program with biotech industry leader Life Technologies

News provided by

Kimberly-Clark Professional

Apr 18, 2012, 01:45 ET

ROSWELL, Ga. and TRENTON, N.J., April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Kimberly-Clark Professional*, a global leader in contamination control solutions for cleanrooms and laboratories, and TerraCycle, a leading recycler, today announced that they are expanding the world's first cleanroom and laboratory garment recycling initiative to include a pilot program for gloves after reaching key collection milestones in the program's first six months.

Since the program's launch in October 2011, participating cleanrooms and laboratories have sent in over 7,000 pounds of garment waste, including coveralls, hoods, boot covers, hair nets, and masks, to be recycled into plastic products such as plastic lumber, park benches, and picnic tables. Participating locations have requested more than 1,000 pallets of collection boxes to return additional garments, signifying that collections are on track to reach more than 350,000 pounds in coming months. Kimberly-Clark Professional and TerraCycle are actively pursuing additional locations for garment collection.

"The launch of the program last fall was a tremendous success," said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. "The reaction to the program shows a need for recycling in this area, as well an industry desire to give a second life to garments and gloves. This new direction has been beneficial to TerraCycle, Kimberly-Clark Professional, laboratories and cleanrooms, and most importantly, the environment."

Kimberly-Clark Professional and TerraCycle's cleanroom recycling program is the first large-scale recycling system to be implemented for non-traditional cleanroom waste and reinforces Kimberly-Clark Professional's commitment to helping customers create Exceptional Workplaces that are safe, clean and sustainable. Companies can order the recycling program through approved Kimberly-Clark Professional distributors and receive a package with everything required to initiate garment recycling in their facilities.

TerraCycle then collects, converts, and resells all waste materials as either bulk plastics or eco-friendly consumer products. The company's bar code system allows Kimberly-Clark Professional to track waste reduction and report that information back to each facility, allowing customers to quantify their reduced environmental footprint.

"It is our continued goal to equip our customers with products and services that positively impact both their profitability and sustainability and help them create Exceptional Workplaces for their employees," noted Randy Kates, Director, Global Scientific Business, Kimberly-Clark Professional. "By working toward a point where we're enabling pharmaceutical manufacturing and cleanroom facilities to recycle gloves in addition to other cleanroom garments, we're extending our commitment to the customer and to the environment."

Life Technologies Pilots Glove Recycling Program

Life Technologies Corporation, a life sciences leader with 15 manufacturing sites in the U.S., is piloting a nitrile glove recycling program with Kimberly-Clark Professional, TerraCycle and Thermo Fisher Scientific, which supplies the gloves as well as all recycling program materials. Employees at Life Technologies' Pleasanton, California, facility started recycling gloves in December 2011 to support the goal of becoming the first of the company's sites to achieve zero waste to landfill.

"In 2011, our Pleasanton manufacturing site raised its landfill diversion rate from 37 to 83 percent, and in early 2012 we expect to reach over 90 percent," said Eve Nichelini, Glove and Garment Recycling Program Manager for Life Technologies. "The recycling program with TerraCycle, Kimberly-Clark Professional and Thermo Fisher Scientific is critical to meeting this goal because gloves account for a significant percentage of Pleasanton's total waste. Employee support is very high because people are motivated by the knowledge that they're keeping hundreds of pounds of gloves each week from landfill. They also feel better about changing their gloves frequently. All of Life Technologies U.S. sites are now considering glove recycling through this innovative program."

Learn more about Life Technologies products and sustainability efforts at www.lifetechnologies.com.

About TerraCycle

TerraCycle's purpose is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. TerraCycle then converts the collected waste into a wide variety of products and materials. With more than 20 million people collecting waste in 17 countries TerraCycle has diverted billions of units of waste and used them to create more than 1,500 different products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle has grown into one of the fastest-growing green companies in the world. Learn more or sign up today at www.terracycle.com.

About Kimberly-Clark Professional

Kimberly-Clark Professional partners with businesses to create Exceptional Workplaces for their employees and patrons. KCP helps transform workplaces making them safer, healthier, and more productive. Key brands in this segment include: Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech, and Jackson Safety. Kimberly-Clark Professional, located in Roswell, GA, is one of Kimberly-Clark Corporation's four business segments and can be visited on the web at www.kcprofessional.com.

About Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Every day, nearly a quarter of the world's population trust K-C's brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds the No. 1 or No. 2 share position in more than 80 countries. To keep up with the latest K-C news and to learn more about the company's 140-year history of innovation, visit www.kimberly-clark.com.