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AnonymousInactiveHP’s Printer Cartridges Are an E-Waste Disaster — Does the Company Really Care?
October
2007 We live in a technology-addicted culture, and the race for the
latest electronics is taking its toll on the environment. Electronic
waste, or e-waste, is now the fastest-growing part of the municipal
waste stream.But as people become more conscious of their “carbon
footprints” or their environmental impact, programs are cropping up to
recycling common e-waste like cell phones and computers. However, when
it comes to printer cartridges, there is a lot of work to be done.
Especially when it comes to industry leader Hewlett-Packard, which is
trying to wipe its carbon footprint clean.HP dominates the printer
cartridge market. According to Andy Lippman, an industry analyst at
Lyra Research, HP produces more than half of the 500 million ink-jet
and 75 million laser cartridges sold annually in North America alone.
Considering that about half of the empties those ink-jet cartridges
replace are simply thrown away, it’s no wonder HP seeks to clean up the
e-waste mess it perpetuates.HP has an e-cycling (or electronic
recycling) process that is convenient and astonishingly simple, given
HP’s global reach. Here’s how it works: Most of its new cartridges come
equipped with a postage-paid shipping label or green mailer envelope
for customers to drop their empties in the mail, free of charge. Those
empties have already added up to 143 million recycled cartridges
worldwide. It’s the kind of environmental stewardship that led Fortune
Magazine to call HP a “green giant” this year.But there are cracks in
HP’s e-cycling façade, wide enough for environmental watchdogs like
Greenpeace to be concerned and for recycling alternatives to
emerge.This past July, HP met its goal for recycling one billion pounds
of electronic products six months ahead of schedule. According to Jean
Gingras, HP’s environmental marketing manager for North America,
recycled ink-jet and laser cartridges comprised more than 25 percent of
that total — some 260 million pounds. The company anticipates similar
numbers for its next billion pounds of e-waste, which it intends to
collect by 2010. “HP designs with the environment in mind,” Gingras
said. While these numbers seem laudable at first glance, Greenpeace is
holding its applause.In September, Greenpeace released the
latest installment of its quarterly “Guide to Greener Electronics,” in
which HP ranked among the bottom of 15 companies on the quest to go
green. The report contended that among HP’s more heinous crimes against
the planet is its failure to eliminate vinyl plastics (PVCs) and
brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from its products. These hazardous
materials are virtually impossible to recycle and wreak havoc on our
environment. PVCs and BFRs that end up in incinerators, smelters or
landfill fires release dioxins and other carcinogens into the air. The
materials can also leach into the soil and wind up in our food
chain.Both PVCs and BFRs can be found in printers and printer
cartridges. Iza Kruszewska, a Greenpeace International Toxics
Campaigner, said that BFRs can be found in the green circuit boards on
cartridges. While BFRs and PVCs can certainly be found in the
cartridges of other companies as well, HP bears the burden of producing
the largest number of cartridges currently available. To date, HP has
no products available that are PVC-free or BFR-free, nor has HP issued
a timetable for eliminating all uses of PVCs or BFRs from its
products.Gingras claimed that, over the past decade, HP has removed 95
percent of BFRs and PVCs from its products. She also insisted that no
components of its recycled cartridges end up in landfills. But others,
like Rick Hind, the legislative director of Greenpeace’s Toxic
Campaign, disagree. “Those materials have to go somewhere. There’s no
safe disposal of PVCs or BFRs, in the same way you can’t dispose of
radioactive material,” he said.While to some, removing 95 percent of
BFRs and PVCs is impressive, the sheer volume of cartridges HP produces
means that there are still too many products out there containing these
hazardous materials. In North America alone, that remaining 5 percent
of HP cartridges containing BFRs and PVCs is equal to 12.5 million
ink-jet and another 3.75 million laser cartridges. This staggering
number is why Greenpeace has demanded HP set a timetable for
eliminating BFRs and PVCs.Reduce, reuse, recycle
It is not
just the chemicals in HP’s products that are of concern — but also
their recycling.Recycling printer cartridges consists of reducing the
empty cartridges down to raw materials that are then used to
manufacture new plastic or metal products. HP uses these materials to
create auto body parts, clothes hangers, roof tiles, spools, and
serving trays, along with a slew of other products. HP even sells a
scanner made from 25 percent recycled ink-jet cartridge plastic and 75
percent recycled plastic bottles. Yet despite these innovative
endeavors, HP has turned recycling into a business in highly dubious
ways.For starters, HP refuses to remanufacture printer
cartridges. Remanufacturing takes empty cartridges, cleans and refills
them with high-quality toner and resells them at a fraction of the cost
of buying a new cartridge. Above all, remanufacturing ensures that
empty cartridges won’t wind up in landfills. Gingras said that HP’s
concern over remanufactured cartridges lies in their reusability. She
pointed to a study (commissioned by HP) in which the print quality is
degraded using refurbished cartridges. “What we’ve seen is that there’s
more waste generated during reuse,” Gingras said, “since there’s a need
to reprint pages with poor quality and use more ink and paper.”HP’s
stats are debatable considering remanufactured cartridges can last
longer and contain up to 20 percent more ink than new cartridges.
Either way, HP’s decision not to remanufacture cartridges seems more
like a business move than an environmental concern.Andy Lippman of Lyra
Research explained, “It doesn’t make sense for [HP] to remanufacture
cartridges because, logistically, it would be very expensive for them.”
Lippman referred to the “razor and blades” business model for selling
ink-jet printers. Printers are sold at low or below cost (many are
bundled for “free” in computer sales) because companies like HP make up
their costs on cartridges. Since remanufactured cartridges can be
upwards of 40 percent to 60 percent cheaper than the original
manufacturer’s, HP is merely watching out for its profit margins by
designing cartridges for one-time usage.HP has created a
recycling Catch-22. It has made recycling easy, but by not offering
remanufactured printer cartridges, customers have no choice but to buy
new cartridges at full price. In March, Recharger Magazine, a trade
publication, reported that Staples discontinued the sale of all
HP-compatible store-brand printer cartridges. Other industry leaders
like Dell, Canon and Lexmark allow companies like Staples to offer
cheaper store-brand cartridges that are compatible with their
printers.HP also has some products, such as its 90 series of ink-jet
cartridges, that will not work outside of the United States. This
maneuver, assessed Rick Hind, “undermines the company’s global takeback
policy,” since it limits the global market of empty cartridges and
overseas recycling. In other words, while HP is recycling millions of
printer cartridges, it has created a system that guarantees the
production of millions more.The alternatives
Greenpeace
alleges that in general, HP has recently weakened its stance on
individual producer responsibility. “Polluters should pay,” Hind
explained. “Companies should be financially and mechanically fully
responsible for taking back all their waste globally.” Unlike in the
European Union, there is no federal legislation in the United States or
China regarding individual producer responsibility, meaning that
recycling is left up to the states, and HP is left largely off the
hook.There are alternatives to recycling with HP, some of which are
financially rewarding for customers. Staples, for instance, gives
customers $3 off their next printer cartridge purchase for each empty
cartridge they bring in, regardless of brand. Then there are
independent chains that have cropped up across the country in recent
years, like the Cartridge Recycling Center, which offers even more cash
for cartridges.Tom Dougherty of Cartridge Recycling said his company
will send a business or school collection boxes with prepaid postage,
paying up to $4 per cartridge. The center in turn sells these empties
back to companies that remanufacture, and they currently process 20,000
cartridges a month.As Jean Gingras said, HP has no qualms with its
recycling competitors, which is understandable given the monopoly they
have created over their products. Gingras did say that customers ought
to make sure materials are recycled properly and that nothing goes to
landfills. Now the only question that remains is whether HP will do the
same. -
AuthorOctober 29, 2007 at 12:28 PM
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