Why Hp Is Environmentally Friendly

By Author: Samuel Arthur
Total Articles: 340
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HP is a massive company so it’s quite relieving to hear they take recycling and being environmentally friendly seriously. The company has continued the legacy of their founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard who believed, “as a practical matter, ethical conduct cannot be assured by written HP policies and codes; it must be an integral part of the organization” – Taken from the HP Way (1992. c). In short, we thought we’d round up a few (there are many) steps which HP have taken to make the printing arm of their business more environmentally responsible and ethical.

Planet Partners Program

HP helps facilitate the recycling of their used cartridges through their Planet Partners program, where customers can drop off their used cartridges at any Planet Partners retailer. HP’s Planet Partners scheme recycles collected HP ink and toner cartridges to recover their raw materials and energy using its industry leading closed-loop recycling process. “In 2010, we manufactured over 310 million HP LaserJet and ink cartridges that contained content from our "closed-loop" recycling process.”- HP. No cartridges ...
... collected throughout this scheme end up in landfill or are refilled for resale.

You can also recycle any HP computer hardware through their Recycle program. The service is free and ensures a lot of HP products can be effectively recycled.

Packaging

HP has reduced the carbon footprint that their inkjet multipack packaging creates by 38%. The new packaging reduces plastic use by 60% and has a weight reduction of 21%. It is estimated that within one year it will have an environmental carbon footprint saving the equivalent to 750 roundtrip flights between San Francisco and Washington DC. – The entire width of the United States (2,800 miles each way). "HP printing supplies are designed, manufactured and recycled in an environmentally responsible manner," said Scott Canonico, manager of environmental policy and strategy for HP supplies.

Jean Gingras, HP Environmental Program manager on the new packaging:

“‘We’re always looking for new materials or methods of packaging that might improve our product and lessen our impact on the environment. Our industry-leading approach considers the environment from the very first stages of cartridge design through manufacturing, distribution, customer use, and disposal. We’re also very cognizant of our retail partners’ needs for security and reduced environmental impact as well as their customers’ experience with our products and packaging.’”

Benefits to the Environment

The new packaging is now more recyclable than before with its manufacturers MeadWestvaco commissioning an independent study which found that the product's lighter weight and fibre-based materials “lower Greenhouse gas emissions, lower human impact and [have] less aquatic toxicity”.

Inkntoneruk Are Pro-Recycling

inkntoneruk do as much as we can to recycle and help keep the environment clean and safe. We recycle as many ink cartridges as we can and donate money to our charity Caring for Kids for every useable cartridge received. We offer a free empty cartridge collection service to our local customers where their cartridges will be passed onto a third party for recycling. Inkntoneruk send out freepost recycle bags with any order so that we can recycle its ink cartridges. All our customers need to do is pop the cartridge in the post to us when it is empty, free of charge.

Inkntoneruk Refill Service

We offer an ink cartridge refill service on select ink cartridges. Using the refill service is an environmentally friendly and responsible approach to printing. There is a steady increase in customers choosing our refill service who are surprised by the print quality of the cartridges and the speed at which we send them back.

Fast Facts

"If you laid all the HP ink cartridges that have been returned and recycled through HP Planet Partners end-to-end, they would stretch 4,772 miles (7,679 kilometres)—nearly the length of Africa from north to south.
" As of 2009, 160 million HP ink cartridges have been returned and recycled worldwide since the HP Planet Partners program began in 1991. Those cartridges could fill 285 standard freight containers.
" If you added up the weight of all the HP ink cartridges that have been returned and recycled through HP Planet Partners since 1991, they would weigh more than 9,000 cows.
" HP's ink cartridge recycling process is an industry first that uses recycled plastics (minimum 95% post-consumer) in the production of new, Original HP ink cartridges, and still meets HP’s demanding standards for quality and reliability.
" Through 2009, HP manufactured 760 million ink cartridges using post-consumer recycled plastics as raw material.
" For HP ink cartridges that use recycled materials, up to 70% of the cartridge is made from recycled material.
" In 2009, HP used 11.4 million pounds of recycled plastic blends in Original HP ink cartridges.
" The HP "closed loop" ink cartridge recycling process is the first and only of its kind to combine recycled HP ink cartridge material with recycled water bottles to create new Original HP ink cartridges.
" When you buy an Original HP print cartridge, you can be confident in HP’s environmental commitment. The HP Planet Partners program recycles collected HP print cartridges to recover raw materials or energy. HP never refills, resells or sends print cartridges to landfill.