At this time of year, consider giving something that is green, but let’s use some imagination. Here are 12 gift ideas to please both the giver and receiver

MONTREAL – “On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, an eco-friendly gift that really sucked.”

You don’t want your love to be singing that little ditty this Christmas, do you? Let’s face it, some so-called “green gifts” are really more for the giver than the recipient. Sure, you want your friends and family to know that you care about the planet. And I am all for reusing gift bags, avoiding battery-operated toys, making your own gifts and fashioning original holiday cards from last year’s haul. But who really wants phosphate-free dish soap for Christmas? And please, no compact fluorescent bulbs in my stocking this year.

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Based in Morristown, NCS helps companies become more sustainable and environmentally conscious by using fully recycled and remanufactured ink and toner products. To meet this goal, it has partnered with InkCycle to provide grenk, a new line of remanufactured ink and toner cartridges designed to leave the smallest environmental footprint possible.

NCS is an environmentally-friendly specialty supplies company that focuses on the ink and toner market. NCS works with purchasing directors and managers to evaluate an organization’s printing and copying expenses and recommend products with optimal quality and cost.

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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.

InkCycle, an ink and toner cartridge remanufacturer, has instituted measures to reduce the amount of waste it generates, including implementing a water filtration process for wastewater.

InkCycle’s waste-reduction effort is part of an overall business model that aims to be sustainable. For example, the company is converting its gasoline-powered automotive fleet to hybrid vehicles; pursues a “print less, save the planet” internal campaign; and it has changed many of its manufacturing operations from five shorter days to four longer days to reduce energy usage. On the toner cartridge side, the company has found ways to modify the manufacturing process to reuse the original components a greater number of times. Environmentally friendlier, for sure, but also a cost savings, Roderick notes.

The financial side of sustainability is something Roderick emphasizes. For sustainability to have long-term momentum, “it has to be based on financial considerations,” he says. Introducing more efficient climate control systems that also lower operational expenses over the long term, for example, fit the bill.

The company’s waste-reduction efforts include an on-site wastewater treatment facility to treat the huge amounts of water and steam needed to thoroughly clean and prepare used inkjet cartridges for remanufacturing. It was introduced both because InkCycle “wanted to make sure we were doing the right thing” and as a defensive strategy, Roderick says. He notes that while the company was easily meeting environmental guidelines prior to the treatment facility, legislation could change and rewrite those rules. InkCycle wanted to be ahead of any new regulations.

The wastewater treatment process used by InkCycle is called electrocoagulation. Describing it in simple terms, Roderick says that as wastewater passes through the treatment system, chemicals and solid materials are “shocked” out of the system using electricity and chemistry, with the sediment falling to the bottom of a holding tank. The sludge goes to an EPA-licensed disposal site, while some of the treated water then can be reused in the cleaning process of the used inkjet cartridges.

InkCycle recently introduced a new product line called Grenk, which the company says extends its efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle products that might otherwise end up in landfills. The company has developed a new use for Grenk’s plastic cartridge housings once they have reached the end of their reusable life. It’s as fuel, but not for InkCycle. Instead the company worked with LaFarge North America and its subsidiary Systech Environmental Corp. to turn those plastic housings into fuel for the production of cement.

These Torit filters are made from 100% recycled General Motors filters and paint.
“What they need in the production of cement is a lot of heat. The way they generate that is typically through the burning of fossil fuels, so [they want] material that is of high BTU value,” Roderick says. Given the petroleum-based nature of plastic, InkCycle’s Grenk cartridges proved to be a viable candidate to help the cement furnaces offset some of the fossil fuel needs. The cartridges are disassembled and shredded before they are used as fuel.

The entire Grenk production and packaging process has been developed with environmental sustainability in mind, as well. Indeed, InkCycle says the packaging boxes are made from the highest available content of recycled material and are chain-of-custody certified. Shredded paper in the boxes are the test prints run from each cartridge before they ship. Additional measures help assure that no part of the Grenk product line need end up in a landfill. Of course, a little customer participation is required. “But we make it very easy for them to return [used cartridges].”

InkCycle is quick to admit that attracting new customers is a big driver behind its introduction of Grenk, even as it pursues a sustainable business model. Roderick explains that not only are there thousands of companies that remanufacture printer cartridges, making it a commodity purchase, but also many companies are resistant to even contemplating the purchase of aftermarket products. “But when we learn they have an environmental initiative, it’s one call to the person in charge of their environmental initiative and… there’s almost a 100% opportunity rate of going in and talking to those companies about the green side and the financial side of [remanufactured cartridges].”

InkCycle calculates it has kept 225 tons of waste materials out of landfills through its reuse and recycling efforts in the past year.

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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.