Materials used in our products are an essential topic when considering KONE’s environmental impacts. Materials used consist of, for the major part, metals – steel, aluminum, copper – and glass, plastics and cardboard in the production centers, and of paper in the offices.
Metals account for more than 90 percent of the materials used for the products. Due to their high metal content, KONE’s products are more than 90 percent recyclable.
Packaging materials include wood, cardboard, paper and plywood up to 97 percent of the packaging weight, and the rest is plastic. Wood, plywood and cardboard can be recycled or used for energy recovery. Plastics are used for energy recovery or are disposed of in landfills.
According to the information gathered in the KONE MonoSpace® elevator life cycle assessments, the elevator equipment is dismantled at the end of the life of the elevator and 55 percent of the material weight consisting of steel and cast iron components can be sorted and directly reused even without preprocessing.
Any possible hazardous materials – elevators may contain lead battery and, depending on the selection of lighting, standard fluorescent lamps that contain mercury – are dismantled and handled according to hazardous waste management procedures. The KONE EcoDisc® hoisting machine contains no oil. All electronics and electromechanical components waste is collected and treated separately.
KONE’s overall principle is to minimize waste already at the product development stage. After that, KONE’s waste management hierarchy is: reduction of waste at manufacturing and operations, reuse and recycling, disposal for incineration and at last, disposal to landfill. Waste is handled in local KONE organizations according to local laws and regulations. KONE’s global supply line as a whole shows a great degree of ability to reduce the amount of waste produced at the manufacturing stage and to recycle the majority of the waste produced at the sites. 98 percent of the total waste by the reporting 9 engineering and production centers forming KONE’s global supply line is recycled or taken to incinerators, and only 2 percent goes to landfills.
Efforts to reduce hazardous materials
In order to fulfill our safety requirements towards our employees and our customers, KONE maintains and continuously updates a list of restricted substances. Concerning the European Chemicals Regulation, KONE complies with REACH. KONE is a downstream user, not a manufacturer or importer. A project has been initiated to share information and ensure suppliers’ compliance with European Regulations, such as the chemicals regulation in REACH, and RoHS list of restricted substances).