It is important to ensure that we do not use resources inefficiently, and therefore we are pursuing a preferred hierarchy of waste reduction at source, followed by reuse, recovery and finally disposal.

During 2007, all of our facilities switched to a new type of plastic pallet for our product shipments. As traditional wood pallets cannot be reused many times, they end up in landfills or are "down-cycled" into paper products, while our plastic pallets are used up to 100 times before being ground up and remanufactured into new pallets. The Vacaville facility is also receiving more materials in bulk, which reduces the amount of incoming containers that have to be sent offsite for recycling or disposal.

Over the last few years, we have pursued a range of initiatives designed to reduce the amount of waste we send for landfill disposal or incineration through increased waste recovery, including recycling and composting.

Last year, for example, we reported on a major initiative led by our Employee Services group to replace Styrofoam and other plastic disposable tableware in our company cafeterias with items made from renewable and 100 percent biodegradable and compostable materials, such as sugarcane, potato starch and soy oil. After an initial successful pilot, this program was rolled out across all Genentech food service operations during 2007.

Examples of Genentech waste streams diverted from landfill disposal include:

• Electronic waste
• Tyvek suits used in manufacturing and laboratories
• Kitchen food waste
• Bottles and cans
• Laboratory plastics
• Cardboard and paper
• Packaging foam
• Pallets
• Green "yard" waste
• Scrap metal

As a result of these efforts, our company wide recovery rates for non-hazardous waste have increased from 32 percent in 2005, to 47 percent in 2006 and 58 percent in 2007.

Read feature stories illustrating some of Genentech's efforts in the area of waste reduction.