Our ambition includes our commitment on optimizing and turning waste into resources and places waste reduction and circularity at its heart.
To accelerate the Company’s transition to a circular economy, we are developing a dedicated circular economy roadmap that aims to close the loop on its entire value chain.
- Promote a more sober procurement;
- Eco-design our products and processes;
- Encourage industrial symbiosis to optimize resource management;
- Develop health as a service and functional economy principles;
- Promote efficient consumption of our products;
- Extend the useful life of our products; and
- Reduce our waste and better reuse and recycle it.
Sanofi is tackling all the waste it generates (including hazardous waste) is to reduce our waste by -30% versus 2019 by the end of 2030.
Our Performance in 2025 :
- We have been able to reuse, recycle and recover 89.4% of our operational waste (89% in 2024).
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0.8% of our waste goes to landfill (vs. 1.2% end of 2024), achieving the 2025 target we had set at corporate level.
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58% of our solvents were regenerated and reintroduced into our industrial process. This avoided generating the same amount of waste.
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61.5% of our syringe vaccines packaging are blister-free.
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Waste impact index1 reduced by 27.7% versus 2019.
Focus on on-site waste
Sanofi pays particular attention to on-site waste management, so that we can categorize and identify waste generated by each process and then collect, sort, store, transport and treat each type of waste appropriately.
In this regard, we weighed each layer of waste quantity in order to reduce waste generation at source, followed by a systematic examination of reuse and then recycling opportunities before resorting to any other form of waste disposal (such as incineration with or without thermal recovery). Landfill is only used as a last resort and requires justification. While the zero-landfill goal is a voluntary target, we are subject to local regulations in countries like Denmark and Germany where landfilling is restricted. In contrast, some countries and regions (US, Asia) frequently practice landfilling, and we work with waste vendors to implement alternatives and eradicate landfilling without the support of public waste management policy.
To reach our 2030 target, we invest in projects such as closed loop recycling of pharma glass, plastic recycling of injection devices, single use bags decontamination and recycling.
In compliance with regulation, before engaging new waste contractors, we thoroughly verify their qualifications, competence, and regulatory compliance for each class of waste. We have also implemented integrated, country-specific waste management approaches in regions with our largest industrial footprint or where potential synergies are greatest, such as France and the United States.
Waste Reduction Initiatives
The most relevant waste streams of Sanofi, as part of the pharmaceutical industry, are used solvents. This is notably due to their absolute quantities (26% of total waste). Some of our used solvents are treated on-site for reuse and are therefore not counted as recovered waste. In 2025, 58% of our solvents were regenerated and reintroduced into our industrial process. This avoided generating the same amount of waste.
Waste Recycling Initiatives
Another significant waste stream results from the production of Heparin using pig mucosa. Recovering the biowaste from this intestinal mucous reduces impact over the value chain through the production of biomethane as an alternative to natural gas. This methanization process allows us to recover energy from over 99% of this biowaste.
Producing flu vaccines generates large amounts of egg waste. Depending on the manufacturing site and available technologies this biowaste is composted or used for methanization. Most of this waste stream can therefore be considered as recycled.
Focus on Post-consumer waste
The first objective of our post-consumer waste strategy is waste “avoidance”, as illustrated by our blister-free vaccines project : Sanofi commits to only selling vaccines in syringe packs, with no secondary PVC packing, by 2030. Concretely this means changing each packaging line, enabling only Cardboard packaging.
On the “reuse” pillar, Sanofi is investigating geographical expansion of our reusable device, since our critically reviewed Life Cycle Assessment proved that the TouStar Toujeo® reusable insulin pen CO2 eq. impact is -50% vs a Sanofi disposable pen.
On the “recycle” pillar, Sanofi has developed a comprehensive take-back system for post-consumer waste to ensure the responsible disposal and recycling of its products. An example is the Returpen program in Denmark, where Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, Lilly and Merck have partnered to pioneer the world's first cross-industry solution for recycling materials from injection pens. The collaboration has been launched in Denmark, because of the existing recycling infrastructure in the country. Today, the four companies account for around 5,2 million injection pens in Denmark annually. This collaboration started on May 1st, 2023, and will help us to accelerate our commitments to improve the responsible and proper disposal of medical devices. Returpen is using pharmacies countrywide for the drop-off.
In France, RECYPEN is an industry collaboration with Sanofi, Eli Lilly, and DASTRI using pharmacies to collect medical injection devices in four pilot regions: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Grand Est, Hauts-de-France and Occitanie started July 1st, 2024.
References
- Waste index = waste to landfill x10 + incineration without energy recovery x7.5 + incineration with energy recovery x5 + recycling / composting x2 + Reused x0