ESG Report 2023

102 10.4.3 Waste Management The Group strictly monitors and controls on the wastes generated during the production process. Apart from complying with the national laws and regulations, Inner Mongolia Company also formulates management measures and emergency plans for handling different types of wastes. The wastes generated by Inner Mongolia Company could be classified into two types, namely non-hazardous wastes and hazardous wastes. The non-hazardous wastes include waste diatomite, sludge and glass generated during production, as well as the general garbage generated in daily operation. Inner Mongolia Company considers recyclable wastes as resources, and collects and delivers them to the qualified units for reuse, so as to effectively minimize the amount of wastes disposed. For example, waste diatomite could be used for producing fertilizer, sludge could be used for producing fuel and waste glass could be used for recycling. In order to reduce the costs of sludge generation and outsourcing utilization, the company invested RMB4 million to upgrade the original sludge horizontal screw centrifugal dewatering technology to the "concentration+high-pressure diaphragm filter press dewatering" 2 technology. The project is to build a two-storey steel structure factory with a single storey building area of 912m . The project will add major 3 3 equipments including two sludge concentrators with a processing capacity of 110m /h, two sludge tanks with a volume of 75m , two PAC 3 2 dosing tanks with a volume of 25m , and four high-pressure plate and frame filters with a filtering area of 450m . The design processing capacity is 2,000 tons per day (for sludge and water mixture), aiming to reduce sludge generation. Inner Mongolia Company complies with the “Guiding Opinions on Improving the Capabilities of Environmental Monitoring, Utilization and Disposal, and Environmental Risk Prevention for Hazardous Wastes” and has formulated strict treatment procedures to handle hazardous wastes, including hyphae slag, waste activated carbon, waste enzyme, concentrated solution of phenylaceticacid, used mineral oil and concentrated liquid in Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR). In order to reduce the amount of waste discarded, Inner Mongolia Company has reused the recyclable hazardous wastes for production. For the hazardous wastes that could not be recycled, treatment for turning them into harmless wastes was made through the incineration system of Inner Mongolia Company. The used mineral oil, which was sealed in barrels to ensure zero leakage, was transferred to the unit qualified for hazardous waste treatment for subsequent treatment. The fermented fungi residue was delivered to the qualified unit to produce organic fertilizers. Zhuhai Company also vigorously promoted waste sorting in response to the Group's goal. This year, we have achieved the safe and harmless disposal and utilization of all waste and the Group has also successfully reduced the amount of hazardous waste generated, reducing it by 36% compared to 2022 level. Waste Disposal Strategy Achieving waste reduction at the source, reducing waste generation Increasing the rate of waste disposal and recycling rate Waste Disposal Targets for This Year Produced ≤ 8.5 tonnes hazardous waste per tonne of products Key Results of Waste Disposal for This Year 36% reduction in non-hazadous waste Environmental, Social and Governance Report 2023 The United Laboratories International Holdings Limited