Our circular economy actions include a wide range of topics from resource efficiency and use of secondary raw materials to value retention maximisation and end of life. In 2024, we launched a redesigned charger packaging alternative across all our hearing aids brands globally, with the exception of charger packaging for one private-label customer. The project aimed to eliminate plastic content and reduce the packaging size to minimise material consumption. While we still use plastic bags to protect our products inside the package, both the inside and outside of the packaging itself is now plastic-free. In collaboration with our largest supplier of plastic for our diagnostic equipment, some of the plastic we receive and use in our devices is from recycled sources. The recycled content in the plastic we use comes from waste generated during our supplier’s internal plastic production. We started using recycled plastic in 2014 and in 2024, we used 1.5 tonnes of recycled plastic. We plan to continue with this initiative in the future.

The resource inflow and outflow are based on estimates, using internal and external data combined with assumptions, and is then extrapolated to the total population based on sales volumes and inventory movements. Key assumptions are for resource inflow including actual weight of the materials found in two hearing aids and then multiplied with the total sales. In-house subject matter experts are consulted to reduce the risk of over- or understating. However, as the reported numbers are based on generic assumptions, numbers are subject to change when we gain access to more accurate data.