Samsung Biologics wins certification for reducing landfill waste

Samsung Biologics' Plant 4 in Incheon / Courtesy of Samsung Biologics

Samsung Biologics announced on Tuesday that it received certification from a global safety certification company for its efforts to reduce landfill waste, marking the first such instance among Korean bio and pharmaceutical firms.

Global safety firm Underwriters Laboratories granted a Zero Waste to Landfill certification to Samsung Biologics, which is based in Songdo, Incheon, for its 85.4 percent landfill waste diversion rate recorded in 2023, the company said.

Zero Waste to Landfill is a waste diversion validation program that evaluates the landfill waste diversion rates of organizations and grants different designations — platinum for 100 percent, gold for 95 to 99 percent, silver for 90 to 94 percent and certified for those achieving over 80 percent.

Samsung Biologics said the certification is significant because waste recycling is relatively difficult for biopharmaceutical firms, which have to incinerate medical waste while using various materials in small quantities.

Samsung Biologics' Green Center / Courtesy of Samsung Biologics

Last year, Samsung Biologics established a 1,815 square-meter recycling unit called Green Center to process general and designated waste separately. This year, the company improved its waste recycling rate by separately collecting synthetic resin waste and organic solvent waste, and has been recycling the former which initially used to be incinerated.

“Samsung Biologics became the first company in Korea to win the certification thanks to its top-tier waste management system,” Samsung Biologics Vice President Park Se-gang said.

“We will continue to strengthen our waste management and acquire higher designations.”

Samsung Biologics also showed improvements in its earnings for the third quarter of this year. Earlier this month, the company posted 1.19 trillion won ($859 million) in revenue and 338.6 billion won in operating profit. The sales grew 15 percent year-on-year and the operating profit also inched up by 6 percent year-on-year. It was the first time that the company logged quarterly sales surpassing 1 trillion won.