Bial – Reduction of volatile organic compounds and waste

Development Area: Management System

For many years Bial has been concerned about the potential environmental impacts of its industrial activity, seeking to find opportunities to reduce its footprint as much as possible.

A commitment to reduce our footprint has been formally integrated in our management system, which begins every year with the report “Environmental Aspects, Risks and Opportunities”, and involves the Quality, Environment, Occupational, Health and Safety Management Plan, and ends with a Performance Analysis – Quality, Environment, Occupational Health and Safety.

2001, The beginning: Reduction of volatile organic compounds

Back in 2001, BIAL was already committed to contributing to the preservation of the environment by implementing an Environmental Management System. One of its goals was the significant reduction of volatile organic compound emissions. A project was initiated to eliminate organic solvents at source, including, among other actions, replacing the organic coating of BIAL’s antibiotics with an aqueous one.

The relevance of this replacement has been evident and with this measure BIAL achieved a reduction of 9.4 tons/year in volatile organic compound emissions, eliminating the inherent hazards of handling flammable and toxic substances.

Replacement of the organic coating with an aqueous equivalent led to modifications in the qualitative-quantitative composition of the product, the manufacturing process, and the control of raw material / intermediate / finished product.

And since 2000, BIAL has had no more consumption of VOCs in its Antibiotics!

Two years ago (2016-2018): Waste reduction

The goal was to find an optimum blister size to minimize the waste produced by patients when they have finished medication.

The forming side of the aluminium blister is composed of a laminate of several films glued together by adhesives:

The goal was to reduce the area of the blister to the minimum through changing the printing systems and blister appearance, and improving equipment controls.

The results showed a sustainable reduction of 30% in laminate consumption per blister.

The 2018 results maintained the same positive result. Below, the old blister size compared with the new one: