REDUCE......RE-USE.....RECYCLE
It is our intention that eventually we may be able to claim to have an operation which produces no waste at all.
With the technology currently available to us, this is not yet achievable, but with advances being made all the time we are confident that in the future this will be possible.
If you ever wondered what happens to laser cartridges which come to us for recycling, the process works like this.
The cartridge is first dismantled, all the components cleaned and inspected. Those parts which can be re-used in the process are put back into the cartridge. Parts which are worn or have reached the end of their life are put aside. Metal parts, e.g. steel, aluminium, go to the metal recyclers; plastic parts are granulated and shipped to Melbourne to be turned into park benches, planking, signposts, jetty planks and piers and a great range of other things where durability is required. Have a look at the seat in our office next time you are in -- it is made from old laser cartridge cases and toner bottles and other "waste" plastics. Or, look in the bus shelters on the roadsides between Kingston and Margate for other examples of things to sit on made from the same materials.
Inkjet cartridges may be re-used by cleaning and refilling, sometimes many times before they end up as scrap metal and plastic (recyclable).
Printer ribbon cassettes may be re-inked for re-use or new fabric fitted to them. If the case or its internal mechanics are damaged, the plastic can be granulated as with the laser cartridges.
We still have one problem component, and that is the waste toner from the laser cartridges. We are unable to find anyone who has a use for very fine black powder which is made up of various components including polystyrene, carbon black, iron oxide. So, if you can think of a use for this product and would like to try some, please contact us - we (and others in this industry) would be pleased to hear from you.
Let us keep our environment as pristine as we can - support those businesses which have a specific recycling and re-use policy in their operation.
Q. What do you do with all your paper which is printed on one side, and which does not contain commercially sensitive information.?
Do you shred it, place it in a "recycle" paper bin for someone else to attend to.?
Do you put it back through your printer and use the other side? This is fine for inkjet printers, but you may have paper jam problems or worse if you do this to your laser printer if it is not designed for duplex (double sided) printing.
Do you just put it out with the general rubbish to end up in land fill?
A. Well, one answer at least.
We have a different strategy.
We generate a lot of paper printed on one side, both from our inkjet and laser printers.
We store these in bins to keep them flat and before the accumulation reaches crisis point, all the A4 sized sheets are guillotined in half (A5) and stapled into pads about 1cm thick and presented to one of the local schools. The infant grades in particular love them - "Think pads" they call them. Mind you, we have seen the office staff using them as well as the children.
Think about your waste paper and what you do with it. You may be able to come up with any number of novel solutions. If you can devise some method of further using your "once used" paper and you want to share the idea, send us an email and we will put your name and idea in this space.
Any paper which is commercially sensitive or in other ways not suitable for recycling in this manner we put through the shredder. After this it may go to one of two places, the local pet shop for their puppies to sit on, or it ends up as part of the garden compost.
Q. What do you do with your used packaging materials.
A. We have been fortunate enough to find a couple of businesses which will re-use our empty cardboard cartons. One is a pottery maker and the other is a manufacturer of specialist laboratory glassware (volumetric flasks, burettes, pipettes, calibrated bore tubing etc). They also take our surplus "bubble wrap" and styrene bead packing materials.
Ask around, you never know who might be able to use your "used" packaging materials.
Q. What do you do with your old computer, monitor, printer, mouse, mobile phone, television set and other waste electronic equipment.
A. There is a firm in Hobart's northern suburbs which will take these from you. Deliver your unwanted "electronic waste" to:
Osbourne Enterprises Pty Ltd
35 Lampton Avenue, Derwent Park....
03 6272 5800
03 6273 1919
its much better than putting them into land fill.
This page last updated July 24, 2006