Posts Tagged ‘remanufacture’
Thursday, May 21, 2009
InkCycle in Industry Week: Putting Waste to Work
Putting Waste to Work
Forget the landfill. Manufacturers are getting better at finding ways to reuse their waste.
By Jill Jusko
Print Cartridges Get New Life
For InkCycle, a remanufacturer of toner and print cartridges, one could argue that it is inherently green in that it reuses spent cartridges that might otherwise end up in a landfill. That’s certainly true, at least in part, says Brad Roderick, executive vice president. “At the end of the day, we are rebuilding on somebody else’s trash.” He points out, however, that even remanufactured products at some point reach the end of their usable life.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The grenk Process: Let’s Start Fresh
Take a look at what makes the grenk process green:
Boxes are made from the highest available content of recycled material and are chain-of-custody certified.
No tape! A proprietary pad and re-usable clips eliminate the need for tape.
Storage bags are made from a new oxygen-degradable polyethylene film that begins degrading in months instead of hundreds of years like standard bags.
Storage clips are returned for reuse or recycling.
Air pillows not only protect our cartridges, they reduce the amount of plastic we use.
We test-print every cartridge before we ship it. Those test sheets are then shredded and reused to fill the storage bags.
All components that aren’t reusable are placed into a best-practices recycling stream. Nothing is thrown away.
Blades, gears and OPC Drums are reconditioned and reused whenever possible.
It’s one thing to recycle a print cartridge. InkCycle’s been doing that since 1992. But with grenk, we recycled the entire process, finding new ways to make our cartridges-and our entire business-more eco-friendly and sustainable.