Kimberly-Clark Professional has announced the 2024 Greenovation Awards to recognise 56 companies for demonstrating sustainability leadership and reducing environmental impact by participating in a landfill diversion programme.

The award-winning companies diverted a total of 419,689 pounds of used personal protective equipment (PPE) from landfills in 2023 through The RightCycle Programme. The programme helps a wide range of Kimberly-Clark Professional's customers reduce their solid waste streams by enabling them to recycle single-use items including wet wipes, garments, gloves, hoods, boot covers, masks and safety eyewear.

Kimberly-Clark Professional established the Greenovation Awards in 2013 to honour the waste diversion efforts of its customers each year. Some of the companies recognised this year for running recycling collection sites include Integrated DNA Technologies, The Jackson Laboratory, MillaporeSigma, Orca Bio, Promega Corporation and Purdue University.

Since its inception in 2011, The RightCycle Programme has helped customers divert more than 5.5 million pounds of PPE waste from landfills. The programme has helped Kimberly-Clark Professional customers meet their own sustainability goals with confidence, validated by landfill diversion data from trusted, third-party sources. This recycling programme collects used PPE and sends these items to regional recycling partners to become plastic pellets used to manufacture consumer products, including lawn furniture, benches and bicycle racks, the company said in a press release.

"The Pall Corporation team at our Cortland facility has truly embraced our commitment to recycling personal protective equipment through The RightCycle Programme. Partnering with Kimberly-Clark has helped us to maintain that commitment and achieve our sustainability goals,” Brian Hoffmire, environmental health and safety manager at Pall Corporation, said.

"Promega has a long-standing commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship. The RightCycle Programme has made it easy for Promega to expand our ongoing sustainable practices,” Corey Meek, corporate responsibility programme manager of Promega Corporation, said.

"Our customers have displayed exceptional leadership in sustainability through this programme as well as other initiatives to reduce their environmental impact," said Ashley Davis, global sustainability manager, Kimberly-Clark Professional. "We commend them on their accomplishments and wish them continued success on their sustainability journeys."