Facilitate and support the knowledge-base and systems for responsible design, use, re-use, recycling and disposal of products containing metals and minerals
Materials Supply & Use
We employ life cycle thinking to understand the potential risks and impacts of our products, beginning with the extraction of raw material from the earth, through to processing, transportation and customer use. We manage a master product list and conduct customer assessment to ensure our products are used safely, as some products may cause harm if handled unsafely by smelters or end users.
As part of our commitment to upholding business ethics, regulatory requirements and external expectations, we work to ensure that smelters, including ours and those downstream, have sufficient environmental management practices. We draw on ecotoxicity expertise developed by the various commodity associations to bring sound science into our management approaches and decisions.
Through our materials stewardship committee, Teck continuously evaluates actual and potential risks and impacts of our products. Further to our ongoing assessment of the impacts of our products, we conduct site visits with potential and existing customers to evaluate their capacity to handle our products responsibly.
We recycle in accordance with international, national, provincial and local requirements, and we aim to exceed these requirements. Continually improving recycling at our operations by identifying and sharing best practices throughout the company is our goal — including ongoing assessments of our recycling and reuse practices.
Read more about our work in managing product impacts.
Our work in this area is externally verified by an independent third-party every year. Learn more in our sustainability report.