Kimberly-Clark Starts Recycling Program for Cleanroom Waste

Kimberly-Clark Professional has launched a large-scale recycling program for nontraditional cleanroom waste.

The Roswell, Ga.-based healthcare workplace subsidiary of Irving, Texas-based Kimberly-Clark Corp. said it has launched RightCycle for customers to exceed their solid waste goals and make their workplaces safer, healthier and more productive.

The program allows items to be deposited in a RightCycle collection box or in the customer’s own boxes, according to a news release. Kimberly-Clark’s recycling partner, Trenton, N.J.-based TerraCycle Inc., will collect the full boxes, which will be assembled and put onto pallets. The program is designed to make it easier to recycle difficult-to-recycle items like cleanroom garments, gloves, hoods, boot covers and hairnets.

Once collected the items are turned into raw materials used to make environmentally friendly products such as plastic Adirondack chairs and benches, bulk plastics and other items.

Kimberly-Clark Professional launched a single-use garment recycling program in 2011 and completed successful pilots of a nitrile glove recycling program in 2012, which is now available nationwide.