Circular economy
Minimizing waste, maximizing resources
2023 year-end figures
systems still active in the field
(of total sold in the past 30 years)
Reuse rate
(of parts returned from field and factory)
Total waste from operations
(excluding construction)
Recycling rate
(excluding construction)
The modular design of our products lets us extract the maximum value from the materials we use, and repurpose our products across their life cycles.
We believe the circular economy is vital to ensure the future success and competitiveness of the semiconductor industry. While continuously innovating, we also want to ensure the increasingly sustainable use of materials across our processes and value chain.
<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal12" target="_blank">UN Sustainable Development Goal</a>
Extending product lifetime
Our refurbished products business refurbishes and upgrades our older lithography systems to a higher performance level to extend their lives. A well-maintained ASML lithography system can last for decades – almost every system we've ever shipped is still in use at a customer fab.
When older systems (such as the PAS 5500) are replaced by newer generations, they are refurbished and given a new lease of life in a fab producing less sophisticated chips (such as accelerometers or radiofrequency chips).
This approach supports our customers’ ambitions to extend the lifetime of their installed base and draw out the best value from their capital, while also underpinning our broader circular economy approach.
Reducing waste
Waste at ASML includes office waste, packaging waste, hazardous waste from the chemicals we use in our processes, as well as product waste (usually parts no longer needed after an upgrade or defective parts).
We have a range of initiatives to reduce and manage this waste, such as our Return4Reuse program, engagement with suppliers, site-specific reductions, and increasing material recycling. From 2019 to 2022, our total waste generated per €1 million decreased from 417 kg to 315 kg.
We have set two ambitious targets to reduce waste in our operations:
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By 2025, we aim to have halved waste generation (209 kg waste generated per €m revenue as compared with a 2019 benchmark of 417 kg waste generated per €m revenue).
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By 2030, we aim to send zero waste from operations to landfill or incineration.
Accelerating re-use
We are committed to re-using parts, tools and packaging whenever possible in our value chain to reduce and prevent waste, reduce costs and accelerate learning. Working together with our customers and suppliers, we aim to remanufacture used system parts, re-using as if they were new parts and preventing unnecessary waste.
We accelerated our efforts in 2020 by establishing a cross-sector Re-use department, dedicated to driving material re-use on a global scale.
Building a re-use mindset and embedding it into normal ways of working is critical to achieving re-use and preventing scrap. Through the modular design of our products and their components, we make sure that worn parts and components can be replaced as a single unit. By ensuring commonality in the parts design process, a part can be used in multiple contexts in a product and even in future product generations. This key element of preventing waste will help us meet our long-term goals.
Circular economy initiatives
Embedding a circular economy approach in our way of working and thinking will enable us to meet our waste reduction goals and we already have a number of initiatives resulting in positive change.
The Return4Reuse program focuses on the reuse of materials used to pack and transport parts between the field and our factories. In 2021, over 4,300 tonnes of transportation materials were re-used, up from nearly 4,000 tonnes in 2020.
Our As-New program aims to prevent unnecessary waste by remanufacturing used system parts, which are then qualified to the same standard as new parts.
Designing for circularity
How ASML embeds sustainability principles into products
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Find out more about our sustainability strategy
