NTO specialist in Cambe, Brazil

Novartis is committed to keep the environmental impact from waste at a minimum and follows a clear waste management strategy. The aim is to prevent, reduce, recycle or use waste as an energy source, before selecting safe disposal as an option. Waste prevention and reduction is always preferred to treatment, incineration or disposal. This helps ensure the overall environmental impact related to waste remains minimal, while energy use from waste is maximized. All Novartis sites report waste data on a quarterly basis and our waste contractors are routinely audited to help ensure our waste is properly managed.

In 2023, we established a baseline for reducing plastics in packaging and devices and continued to remove single-use plastics in workplaces.

2025

Eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in packaging¹ and reduce amount of waste sent for disposal by half²

2030

Become plastic neutral³ with all new products meeting sustainable design principles.

Lab equipment

Two projects, aiming to revolutionize early drug discovery, could also help reduce hazardous waste.

  1. From Novartis owned and operated sites that are involved in packaging; defined as secondary and tertiary packaging. In addition, this is supported by efforts to eliminate PVC from primary packaging where feasible
  2. Vs. 2016 baseline, restated in 2023 to exclude Sandoz
  3. Plastic neutral is achieved when the weight of plastic packaging entering the environment for disposal is approximately the same as weight being recovered for recycling