Product Design & Lifecycle Management at Dentsply Sirona Norway

Maintaining High Product Quality Standards

We regularly conduct checks to ensure that every Dentsply Sirona product is biosafe. An overview of how this is applied can be found in our Safety Data Sheets (SDS) housed in the Dentsply Sirona Download Center.

Our design control and product development procedures focus on the reuse of standard components. We conduct regular reviews and evaluations on material safety including component selection to ensure we both meet and exceed requirements set by regulatory standards such as the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHSD). We also follow Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“WEEE”) that mandate waste and recycling practices when we need to dispose of our products.

Product Design and Product Process Improvements at Dentsply Sirona

As the world’s largest manufacturer of dental products and technologies, innovation sits at the heart of our operation as we are always looking to launch new products that drive dentistry forward while also increasing access to oral health. We are committed to delivering more digital solutions to drive sustainability within dentistry and have implemented return and trade up programs where select equipment is either refurbished and sold, or donated, to universities, educational organizations or other public institutions at discounted prices. When we cannot breathe new life into our products, the equipment is recycled or scrapped, in line with stringent regulations, by authorized, certified service providers. Already since December 2020, we discontinued manufacturing and sales of amalgam filling materials, which contains mercury.

Mölndal, Sweden

Our business, Wellspect, makes a conscious decision to choose paper products made with materials from well-managed forests and recycled sources. In 2021, 62% of customer boxes and 100% of transport boxes for our LoFric products were made from Forest Stewardship Council (“FSC”) certified material.

We will continue to increase the amount of FSC certified material we use in our packaging, with the goal of making all our boxes using 100% FSC certified material and therefore fully recyclable by 2025.

Bensheim, Germany

At our Bensheim site in Germany we have substituted crude oil as a cooling lubricant in the production of Gas to Liquid (“GTL”) oil within our metal cutting production. GTL oil is free of mineral oil, which is produced from waste products, and is also free of aromatics, nitrogen, heavy metals, sulfur, zinc and chlorine compounds, giving it a significantly longer life span, fewer skin damaging properties and a higher flame point. By the end of 2021, 66% of the cooling lubricant had been replaced and we expect 100% to be replaced by the end of 2022.

Wellspect, Turkish Plant

The team managed to reduce the number of solvents in production by improving work processes, technologies, and planning. By the end of 2020, the team had managed to reduce the use of coating solution by 12%.

Wellspect, Lofric Sense Catheter

The packaging foil for the LoFric Sense catheter was updated in 2020 with the removal of a barrier layer of aluminum oxide. This led to a reduction in the annual carbon footprint of LoFric production, the equivalent of driving 153,000 kilometers in a diesel car.

Refurbish, Recycle, Donate

As an innovative Company, we launch new products or provide software upgrades to existing equipment on a periodic basis. Through our extended producer responsibility effort, we have return/trade-up programs for select equipment. Equipment returns are either refurbished and sold or donated to university or educational organizations, or other public institutions at discounted prices. In most cases, equipment is recycled or scrapped, in line with stringent regulations, by authorized, certified service providers.

Avoidance of Conflict Minerals

We work closely with our suppliers to monitor and avoid use of “conflict materials” in our products, and seek to comply with all applicable laws and regulations governing importing and exporting products and technology and making them available for sale. This includes production materials, finished goods, capital equipment, molds and tooling, samples and prototypes, repaired and returned products, and technical information.

We expect all our business partners to exercise due diligence to ensure that they adopt proper import/export-related policies, procedures, and controls within their organizations, including proper identification of external partners, locations, details of how they do business, source locations, countries of origin, and components of the products.

We expect our suppliers and distributors to follow all external laws as well as our internal policies when registering products to make them available for sale. Products may only be sold into countries and territories authorized by our commercial agreements.

Other Healthy Planet Case Studies

2022 Sustainability Report

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