Kartell, founded in 1949, was one of the first companies in Europe to begin transforming plastic materials and using them to create and produce designer furniture, furnishing objects and household accessories. In the last 60 years Kartell’s main objective has been to take the technological and industrial aspects of plastic and combine them with a cultural and aesthetic approach. In this sense, the company has emerged as a true innovator amongst Italian and international companies. At the end of the 1950’s this technological development led naturally to the birth of the Labware Division, a section of Kartell that supplies products specifically for the laboratory market, as general purpose labware, bottles, graduated and volumetric plasticware, microscopy and microbiology, filtration and vacuum pump, clamps and supports, pipettes, test tubes, hospital wares, fluoroware and disposable items. These products that are lightweight, highly resistant, inexpensive and the natural alternatives to glass. It is this commitment to quality that led to Kartell being granted ISO 9001 certification in 1996, and will continue to be its driving force into the future. In 2010 the company updated its certification standard and is now UNI EN ISO 9001:2008 certified. In 2011 it achieved UNI EN ISO 14001: 2004 certification for its support of an effective Environmental Management System, an international standard recognised throughout the world, which defines development and implementation parameters in corporate processes in order to achieve an effective environmental management system.