Too Good to Waste!

Waste Reduction Week (WRW) is the celebration of the 3Rs – reduce, reuse, and recycle and will be held on October 15th – 21st, this year.  When it comes to recycling in Canada, there’s a box for almost every color of the rainbow, but unfortunately none of these address one of the fastest-growing constituents of the solid waste stream, electronic waste.  In addition electronics contain many valuable metals that can be recycled.

Environment Canada says more than 140,000 tonnes of end-of-life electronic equipment such as PCs and TVs accumulate in Canadian landfills each year, and that is expected to triple by 2010 when Canada’s homes and businesses will collectively product more than 400,000 tonnes of e-waste.  The volume alone is alarming, but perhaps even more critical is that this discarded hardware may leak toxic metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium into our environment.  PCs which are discarded in the garbage are estimated to account for more than one tonne of mercury and 4.5 tonnes of cadmium in Canadian landfills.  In addition, wasting valuable metals such as copper that can easily be recycled.

Municipalities, companies, and schools across Canada, from Victoria to Halifax, are participating in Waste Reduction Week. At the corporate level, HP is taking a leading role. For five consecutive years, HP Canada has been a Champion Level sponsor of WRW, an event which aims to raise public awareness about waste and its environmental and social ramifications. Through both monetary donations and employee time and resources, HP Canada is supporting activities across the country to help spread the word about reducing, reusing and recycling.

HP’s long-standing commitment to the environment doesn’t stop with supporting other organizations such as the recycling councils.  “Since the environment is everyone’s business, HP Canada is making it easier than ever to enable employees, customers and partners to be effective environmental stewards,” says Frances Edmonds, director of environmental programs, HP Canada.

“We are committed to reducing our own environment impact, as well as that of our customers, partners and suppliers, “said Lloyd Bryant, VP and General Manager, IPG Canada.  “The objective of the HP Planet Partners return and recycling program is to reduce the environmental footprint of products, minimize waste to landfill, and provide customers a convenient and environmentally sound product end-of-life solution.”

This year, through our Planet Partners recycling program we have met our goal six months early to recycle 1 billion pounds of electronics.  HP now sets a new goal to recover another billion pounds by the end of 2010 doubling our annual recovery rate. 

HP Planet Partners return and recycling program enables convenient recycling of HP original inkjet and LaserJet supplies, any brand of computer hardware and rechargeable batteries.  We ensure that returned products are recycled properly, processing them to recover valuable plastics and metals for new products and diverting millions of tones of waste from landfills.  Customers can simply visit www.hp.ca/recycle and order a bag or box to return used HP cartridges for responsible recycling, free of charge. 

Always thinking about the environment, HP also designs and manufactures products that are energy efficient and easy to recycle.  In addition to using materials that are easy to recycle, HP works hard to minimize the number of parts, chemicals, and the amount of packaging. 
(HP’s New Environmental Video: “Designing for the Environment”) 

Since every little bit helps, try reducing your waste by implementing some WRW ideas at home and at work and pass on the news that anyone can easily recycle with HP.