A recent article in ‘What To Buy For Business’ suggests that commercial waste is set to grow by 33% by 2015, creating an unmanageable volume of landfill and environmental hazards and that vendors need to pay increasing attention to the way in which hazardous materials are disposed of.

In today’s business, corporate social responsibility has become increasingly important with a raft of new legislations affecting the way companies handle IT procurement. The increasing ‘green legislations’, such as Restriction of the use of hazardous substances (RoHS) and Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), underline the need for companies to handle their waste in a professional and environmentally sensitive manner.

The effect of these ‘green legislations’ is not only visible with vendors’ approach to market, but in the attitudes of end users. Vendors across the board are reporting that end users are becoming increasingly focused upon environmentally friendly products for the office. In an effort to reduce the amount of hazardous materials and safer recycling methods, the EU introduced the RoHS and WEEE directives to further drive forward ‘green business’. Though the full success of the WEEE legislation won’t be known for some time yet, businesses have already adopted RoHS requirements for their current and new product portfolios.

The RoHS directive came into force in July 2006 and had a huge impact on the electronics industry and on purchasers, in particular on those involved in the OEM and electronics manufacturing services (EMS). Although the legislation affects only EU countries directly, the effects of RoHS are felt worldwide. For example, in Canada officials have proposed an electronic product stewardship program, which incorporates many of the aspects of the RoHS legislation. It calls for every brand owner to implement a ‘design for the environment’ program for each of its products that includes the elimination of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium and other environmentally harmful materials.

The main effect of RoHS is felt in the manufacturing stages of products. Vendors have substituted lead free parts into their products and changed their manufacturing processes to comply with the directive. At the time of implementing RoHS, many vendors were predicting sharp price increases of products, but so far these have yet to materialise. Vendors and manufacturers must make sure that their end users understand terms such as ‘green’ and ‘lead free’ as these may not necessarily mean that products are RoHS compliant.

WEEE is the fastest growing element in the municipal waste stream. The EC has issued the WEEE Directive, which aims to reduce the waste arising from electrical and electronic equipment by imposing responsibility to handle the waste onto the manufacturer or importer. Vendors need to realise that ultimately the directives such as RoHS and WEEE will lead to huge opportunities for the industry. As older models become obsolete, end users will have to obtain alternative products. Companies that respond to the new legislative requirements will be able to retain their existing customer base, those who do not, will ultimately fail. It really will be a case of sink and swim.

Recent advances in printer technology have ensured that the average life of a printer is longer than ever before. Laser printers are built to last for a number of years with the aim of reducing the amount of waste created per printer unit. However, each printer, depending on business size and printing requirements will use additional consumables, which is where the majority of the recycled material will come from. Laser printer toner cartridges are currently difficult to dispose of and are often discarded among regular waste.

With end users desire to recycle increasing, printer manufacturers need to enable recycling programmes for their printer consumables. These programmes need to provide users with a recycling resource which minimises the environmental impact of disposal. All consumables collected through the recycling programmes can then be processed, for reuse. Where a market exists, components can also be processed for use in alternative industries. All plastics that cannot be processed back into the remanufacturing industry must be disposed using fully qualified systems of handling which are designed to minimise any harmful impact upon the environment.

As a point of interest, it is worth noting that there is a general shortage of used cartridges available for the consumables remanufacturing industry. I would therefore encourage end users to adopt a recycling scheme from a reputable vendor, safe in the knowledge that your efforts will have a positive impact upon the environment.

BIOS, Jan 19, 07 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Printer