Innovate for Good
Protect people and the planet
Enabling a circular economy
Innovating safer by design
Safer Byproduct Leads to Circular Opportunity
Our Asia CMP Manufacturing and Technical Center in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is a global leader in manufacturing chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) polishing pads. The site’s application expertise serves the semiconductor chip manufacturing industry and other advanced substrate polishing applications. CMP pads play a critical role in the semiconductor industry by enabling advanced performance technology that can greatly affect the yield, quality and performance of many different types of electronics devices.
In 2021, in line with our Innovating Safer by Design and Enabling a Circular Economy objectives, the Asia CMP Center implemented a strategy to reduces its production of halogen waste by selecting raw materials with a less hazardous chemical profile and cooperating with local recycling technology companies to reuse, recycle and regenerate the byproduct.
Manufacturing processes at the Asia CMP Center generated about 810 metric tons of byproduct in 2020. Most of this halogen-rich byproduct must be removed by a specialized waste management company. Halogens are highly reactive and can be harmful or lethal to biological organisms when in sufficient quantities. This waste must be safely incinerated in specialized handling processes.
The Asia CMP Center implement a strategy to reduce its production of halogen waste by selecting raw materials with a less hazardous chemical profile. Without the halogen content, the polyurethane-based byproduct is a stable component. Its physical characteristics make the byproduct suitable for reuse as filler material in construction applications.
In 2021, we partnered with a local recycling technology firm to crush the byproduct to the desired size, then mix it with other components to create composite materials which can be used to create a base for polyurethane pavement. This pavement composite works well in airport runways.
After a successful pilot and a return on investment of approximately 2000% in 2021, this partnership has become a role model for safer, more circular manufacturing in Taiwan.
The Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy awarded the Asia CMP Center with the esteemed 2021 Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Award for its efforts, including using raw materials with less impact to the environment, process optimization to minimize the residues during manufacturing, utilizing new technology to transform hazardous waste to recyclable materials, and implementing water reuse technology and solar panels.
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