Hillenbrand ups sustainability attention

Indiana-based Hillenbrand Inc. has provided details on some of its own recycling efforts in a newly issued sustainability report covering activity in 2021.

The industrial conglomerate includes portfolio companies that manufacture plastic recycling and reprocessing equipment. At the end of last month, it announced its acquisition of Germany-based Herbold Meckesheim, further increasing its presence in that sector.

Hillenbrand’s other operating companies include plastic sector equipment makers Coperion, DME, Mold Masters, Milacron and Rotex, plus casket maker Batesville.

In its sustainability report, Hillenbrand says both Coperion and DME recycle metal chips at their production facilities in Europe and North America, respectively. Batesville, meanwhile, uses scrap wood as a feedstock for a boiler it operates.

Batesville also has enacted changes in its casket packaging methods that, according to Hillenbrand, have resulted in “eliminating the 200,000 pounds of plastic wrap and about 60,000 pounds of blankets previously used annually for packaging.”

Several of the operating companies also refer to programs at Hillenbrand facilities designed to collect and recycle paper, plastic, glass and other materials generated via the manufacturing process and office activities.

In an opening message to the report, Hillenbrand President and CEO Kim Ryan refers to the use of equipment made by its portfolio companies in the recycling sector by writing, “Collectively, we play a unique part in the development of a sustainable future, providing solutions to a wide variety of customers, who manufacture what the world needs to thrive today.”

Adds Ryan, “We are also living our purpose by helping meet increasing consumer demands for sustainable solutions by investing in innovation centers and introducing new products and systems designed to meet the rising need for advances in plant-based proteins, recycling, biopolymers and batteries.”