WASTE & BIODIVERSITY

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Reducing Waste & Protecting Nature

TRANSFORMING RAW MATERIALS AND NATURAL RESOURCES INTO ESSENTIAL CHEMICALS

Our stakeholders expect us to responsibly manage how we produce these chemicals and dispose of waste, which helps the environment and reduces operating and compliance costs. We are committed to improving our resource-use efficiency, acting on opportunities to reduce waste, encouraging our employees to reduce their own waste footprints, and enhancing the circular economy throughout our value chain. We also strive to be good stewards of the lands we own and lease to support our operations and are committed to preserving biodiversity.

Our 2023 Actions

Reduced waste from a unit operation in Corpus Christi, Texas, by over 60%, while increasing yield, using a recycle stream, and saving more than $1 million annually. Though this project does not go toward our landfill goal, it was recognized with a 2024 Department of Energy Better Plants Project award.
Utilized a circularity program to recycle or reuse super bags from customers
Continued to perform assessments with customers to explore product presentation and shipping to reduce waste
Continued to explore opportunities to reuse waste from internal TiO₂ landfills
Developed a framework with Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) to conduct a nature assessment and to implement a corporate-wide, nature-based initiative in 2024
Awarded WHC’s highest-level gold certification at the DeLisle site in Mississippi, in part for its long-term monitoring of least tern nests; this site also partnered with Audubon Delta to enhance their efforts in protecting these birds
Completed ninth year of a partnership between the University of Georgia and our mineral resources team to conduct gopher tortoise conservation research

2030 CRC Goals Snapshot

Committed to Waste Reduction and Sustainable Land Practices

Despite our best efforts, our landfill volume intensity increased in 2023 versus our 2018 baseline. While there are several contributing factors, this increase is primarily due to the closure of an asset that produced zero landfill waste. As our understanding of circularity, product carbon footprint, and lifecycle analysis matures, we recognize the intersections between our waste goal and our climate and sustainable offerings goals. As we evaluate these sustainability opportunities, we expect progress towards our 2030 landfill goal to be delayed.

We take practical, cost-effective actions to reduce waste as we grow our operations, in addition to considering capital investments that improve manufacturing processes and reduce waste generated at our sites. We encourage everyone at Chemours to rethink and improve waste management strategies to reduce our impact on communities and the environment.

Nature is another important focus. Protecting and restoring natural habitats helps increase the availability of clean water in watersheds; provides protection from the impacts of severe weather events; enhances natural CO₂ sequestration processes; and supports rich, diverse ecosystems and their services. We strive to be good stewards of the lands we own and lease to support our operations.

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Case Studies

Partnering with the Wildlife Habitat Council

We partner with the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC), a group focusing on building collaboration for conservation between corporate employees, conservation organizations, government agencies, and community members. The WHC’s certification program is the only voluntary sustainability standard designed for broad-based nature enhancement and conservation education activities on corporate landholdings. Chemours’ sites lead WHC programs, enabling employee volunteers to engage with, and give back to, the local communities in which we operate. In total, six of our sites have received WHC certification—five gold and one silver certification. Together, our WHC-certified sites are engaged in 65 actively managed WHC projects.

Preserving Gopher Tortoise Habitats

While we are committed to returning our former operating sites to beneficial use. Some species—like the gopher tortoise—need a little extra help. We relocate the tortoises to wildlife management areas in Georgia and approved relocation areas in Florida. We are also an active participant in the Gopher Tortoise Conservation Initiative, a public-private partnership aiming to establish 65 reproductively viable populations on protected lands. Over the nine years of mining in Georgia, more than 400 tortoises and 181 hatchlings reared from collected eggs have been moved to such areas through this partnership.

Deploying AI to Reduce Product Waste

In early 2023, our Washington Works site completed the installation of an optical sorter in its perfluoroalkoxy (PFA) production facility. The optical sorter uses advanced analytical tools to detect and remove defective material from the produced product. In the past, any contamination of the product meant the loss of the entire batch with the material sent to landfill or, where possible, being sold as second- or third-quality material. The optical sorter scans the material with more than 100 cameras and uses puffs of air, directed by artificial intelligence (AI), to remove the defective material. The removal of the approx. 0.1% defective material from these contaminated streams has resulted not only in increased yields of first-quality PFA, but also reduced more than 100 MT of waste in 2023.

Partnering for Progress

Creating a More Sustainable, Circular Future

Reinforcing Chemours’ commitment to resource efficiency, our Thermal & Specialized Solutions business in 2023 created an international F-gas Lifecycle Program across the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The program aims to advance the global recovery, reclaim, and reuse of fluorinated gases (F-gases) safely across its low global warming potential (GWP) Opteon™ products, Freon™ refrigerants, and FM-200™ portfolios. Chemours continues to invest in and expand reclaim channels across regions, including the 2023 extension of its EU and UK program to reclaim low GWP refrigerants.