Waste

At Dover, efficiency in our operations is a foundational principal and our commitment to reducing our environmental impact includes managing waste responsibly. Accordingly, we are pursuing efforts to identify sources of waste in our operations and to minimize our production of waste, including upstream and downstream waste production associated with the sourcing and use of our products by our customers.

Managing Our Waste

Efficiency is a core principle for all Dover operating companies. Each business is responsible for managing waste which allows a tailored approach customized to the unique business environments and requirements of our diverse portfolio of operating companies.

Waste management practices vary at our sites depending on our operating companies’ product lines and the unique needs of their customers, but generally waste management efforts include some or all of the following:

  • Focusing on efficiency and continuous improvement through lean manufacturing that reduces the 7 kinds of waste (e.g., overproduction, defects, transport) identified in the centralized 0DOVER operational excellence and safety framework
  • A recycling/waste strategy based on value stream mapping and optimized packaging design
  • Following internationally recognized best practice environmental management systems such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 and setting goals for waste reduction
  • Assessing waste management by third parties such as EcoVadis at the request of customers
  • Internal auditing of waste management and lean practices through the 0DOVER framework
  • Innovating for sustainability in new product development, including considering environmental aspects such as reducing waste generated or energy or water consumed by products

As with other sustainability-related risks, waste risks are evaluated and integrated into our broader company-wide oversight of risk management as needed and are addressed in part by our ongoing conservation efforts. These include the setting of waste reduction goals by a number of our operating companies as part of their ISO 14001 certifications.

In the future we are considering centralizing data collection, reporting and management of waste to drive increased attention to waste reduction efforts.

OPERATING COMPANIES REDUCING WASTE

A number of our operating companies are certified to the ISO 14001 environmental management system standard, which requires setting goals for resource efficiency, including waste. Several SWEP sites including those in Sweden, Slovakia, and Malaysia, are achieving improvements in first pass yield – the proportion of heat exchangers that are manufactured without the need for rebrazing – and in scrap rates, indicating efficient resource use and resulting in less waste. The Swedish plant recorded an 18% reduction in scrap and the Malaysia plant recorded a 35% reduction. These improvements are driven by new in-process measurement systems to better capture data and dedicated improvement teams. Read more in the SWEP Sustainability Report 2021.

Markem-Imaje is proactively targeting the reduction of its global waste by 2030 from a 2019 baseline. Through optimizing manufacturing processes, Markem-Imaje has already reduced waste by 13% based on production activity (kg waste per ton shipment) from 2019. Read more in the 2021 Markem-Imaje Sustainability Brochure.

Dover Food Retail Hillphoenix implemented a metals program process improvement project in 2021 that improved recycling rates and generated cost savings and revenue from metals recycling. In implementing the program, which focuses on process documentation, training, and updated signage the site was able to transform scrap metals separation and recycling to generate revenue, create space, and significantly reduce scrap metal waste sent to landfill.

REDUCING WASTE AND ENABLING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY THROUGH PRODUCT INNOVATION

We also consider waste from a broader value chain perspective, particularly the value we can bring by developing products and solutions that help our customers reduce their waste footprint. As an industrial manufacturer and developer of equipment and solutions for many diverse markets, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunity to help our customers address their waste goals.

Increasing the use of recyclable metals

Belvac machinery and manufacturing technologies play an integral part in sustainable packaging. Specializing in can making equipment, Belvac designs machinery to enable beverage can makers to manufacture cans out of aluminum – a highly recyclable metal that supports a circular economy. In addition, Belvac has reduced the amount of raw material needed for aluminum cans, while maintaining can strength and durability, making these cans more affordable than their less-recyclable counterparts made of PET and glass.

Helping customers increase recycling rates and enable the circular economy

Dover’s Environmental Solutions Group (ESG) companies focus their innovation efforts on making solid waste handling and recycling management cleaner, safer, and more efficient. ESG provides many solutions that help increase recycling, reduce waste, and enable the circular economy. For example, ESG’s connected compaction and baler products can help customers monitor and meter waste and recyclable streams at the generation point, thereby increasing purity and diversion of recycled materials which is beneficial for reuse. These technologies divert valuable resources from being discarded in landfills and provide manufacturers with a steady supply of recycled materials.

Enabling Reusable Packaging to Reduce Single-use Plastics: Markem-Imaje

Markem-Imaje coding solutions address the important issue of reducing single-use plastics. By providing proven inks and marking solutions that enable coding on returnable glass bottles, refillable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, or on easily recyclable aluminum cans, Markem-Imaje’s innovative marking solutions enable customers to eliminate single-use plastics in their value chain. Markem-Imaje also offers a coding solution, Coding Integrity, that verifies the information printed on products using cameras and scanning technology. This helps ensure that product coding, such as expiration dates, are more reliably printed, which in turn reduces food waste.

Reprocessing Plastic Products: MAAG

MAAG Group systems also play a key role in reducing waste and enabling a more circular economy for plastics. MAAG Group serves the entire plastics value chain from virgin polymers to processing of parts to end-of-life recycling, giving it deep insight into how its products can enable the effective return of used plastics material into high quality products. MAAG Group’s recycling processing solutions address the technical challenges posed by working with often highly contaminated used plastics material streams, including filtration technologies that remove contaminants such as paper, metal, or wood from used plastics and color control systems for recycled plastic pellets. For example, MAAG Group’s ETTLINGER’s melt filters allow recyclers to more efficiently remove contaminants from highly contaminated loads of used plastics with a reduced loss of material compared to alternative solutions. MAAG Group’s product portfolio of pelletizers, dryers, pulverizers, and melt pumps are used in a wide variety of applications that support closing the loop for plastic materials.

For more information on our innovative and sustainable products and solutions and how they enable the circular economy, please visit our Innovation for Sustainable Products webpage.