Stinky Ink News

How to dispose of old printers responsibly.

When we first started Stinkyink.Com back in 2002 I bought an HP Officejet V40 all in one Fax/Copier/Printer/Scanner from our local computer superstore. After a few years of sterling service it has been superseded by a super-duper colour laser HP Laserjet 2840 fax/printer/copier/scanner, leaving us with the question what to do with the old one?.

My immediate reaction was that under the latest Waste Electrical Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive somebody (probably me) was now responsible for recycling it. So my task was to find out Who, Where and How?.

It is not easy!. First stop was Google and type in WEEE Directive which takes me to the DTi website . The UK Regulations implementing the WEEE Directive were laid before Parliament on 12 December 2006 and enter into force on 2 January 2007 and have to be complied with by all relevant parties by the 1st of July 2007.

The first paragraph says ‘The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) aims to minimise the impact of electrical and electronic goods on the environment, by increasing re-use and recycling and reducing the amount of WEEE going to landfill. It seeks to achieve this by making producers responsible for financing the collection, treatment, and recovery of waste electrical equipment, and by obliging distributors to allow consumers to return their waste equipment free of charge.’ This is a pretty black and white statement of responsibility on producers and distributors to take back and recycle all Electronic Equipment at no expense to the consumer.

A bit more reading of some very long and boring legalise basically says that the UK adopted the WEEE Directive back in January 2007 and that it will be legally binding on all Distributors and Manufacturers by 1st of July 2007. This being the last week in June 2007 I thought – no problem pop onto the PCWorld website and type in WEEE and see what comes up. Nothing!. OK lets check the terms and conditions, hmm last updated May 2005 and no mention of WEEE.

The directive actually says that if you are a retail customer, then if you buy a replacement product from the store they have to take back your old item and dispose of it in accordance with the requirements of the WEEE directive (read more here ). That seems fair enough, for both the retailers and the consumers and I suspect that all of the major retailers will be compliant with the requirements of the directive when they have to be. The consumer gets rid of their old electronic equipment and the retailer gets a new sale. The hidden cost of course is going to be bourne by you and some experts predict up to 4% cost increases to cover the recycling requirements.

What about business’s I hear you ask?, not quite so easy for us as a business. I either have to pay somebody to take it away and recycle it appropriately or take it to my local council recycling site for proper disposal. It is my responsibility as a businessman is to make sure that the printer is taken to a properly disposed of according to the requirements of the Directive.

The other thing of real interest to us here at Stinkyink Towers is the recycling of printer inkjet and laser toner cartridges. These have been specifically excluded from the WEEE directive after some very heavy lobbying by the printer manufacturers.

Stinkyink officially went green for World Environment Day today. Employees from Stinkyink.Com in Alveley,Shropshire took part in the planting of a carbon neutral tree at their head office to signify their intention to commit to a greener way of working.

Employees were encouraged to find environmentally friendly ways to get to work including walking, cycling and sharing lifts to help reduce their carbon footprint.

World Environment Day is a key event organised by the United Nations to raise awareness of the environment and encourage action.

John Sollars (Managing Director) said “You cannot afford to ignore environmental issues in business today - everyone is becoming more environmentally conscious. Customers and employees expect you to be environmentally responsible or they will buy elsewhere. This issue has a direct impact on profits and we are using World Environment Day as a launch date for our intentions to become a greener company”

When Stinkyink Towers was relocated to our present premises, we were filling TWO 1300 Litre four wheel bins with waste every week. These were collected by our local council and trucked off into landfill. This didn’t sit very comfortably with me personally nor with my team here.

Today our single 650 Litre (Household size) wheelie bin will be emptied on its fortnightly collection cycle. This is a huge reduction in the waste we generate, bearing in mind that the business has grown by 60% over the last two years that we have been located in these premises, so you would expect our waste to grow the same amount.

How have we achieved it?. It wasn’t easy to start with. Our local council runs houselhold waste tips where you can seperate waste, and also kerbside collections of recyclable waste for homes - but none of these facitlies were available for businesses. Our Enviormental committee was formed and it’s first task was to reduce our waste. We now have a Cardboard recycling Skip and Paper recycling skip (which is most of the waste that we generate) which are emptied as necessary as we fill them. The even better news is that I am actually paying less for my waste removal than we used to, and offering a recycling service to the other companies on our estate.

So, the next task for our Enviromental Committee is to examine our Carbon Footprint and try to reduce it or even make us Carbon Neutral, if anybody understands how we actually achieve that I would be very grateful for the information. It seems to me that everybody is talking about it, some people are making money out of it, but for most of us it is an impossible dream