*NEWS*HP REDESIGNES INK & TONER PACKAGING

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HP Helps Environment with Redesigned Ink Toner Packaging
HP is redesigning the North American packaging for its print cartridges as part of its ongoing efforts to help the environment. The firm says that the smaller and lighter packaging will result is an estimated 37 million points of reduced greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to taking 3,6000 cars off the road for one year. The new packaging reduces the total carbon footprint of each cartridge, along with the truck and freighter transportation traffic required to ship them. It also contains more recyclable and recycled content.HP says the new and more environmentally-friendly packaging will also benefit retailers, in that it will reduce transportation and storage costs, while at the same time freeing up valuable display space. HP says the front-facing surface area for multipacks has been reduced by 80 per cent; and tripacks sold at club stores can now be stacked three-high on shelves, as opposed to two high. New LaserJet toner catridge packaging offers more than 30 per cent shelf space savings.  “Innovation at HP goes beyond just product design,” said Pradeep Jotwani, Senior Vice President, Supplies, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “Developing environmentally responsible packaging is not only valued by HP, our customers and our partners: it’s also good business.” HP estimates that its redesigned print cartridge packaging will eliminate the use of nearly 15 million pounds of materials, including three million pounds of corrugated cardboard in 2007. The packaging will also eliminate the use of more than 6.8 million pounds of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic through material reduction and substitution of recycled content plastic and paperboard. HP’s inkjet cartridge multipacks, for example, are now made with recycled content paperboard instead of PVC; while photo value packs are now completely packaged in recycled paperboard. Additionally, PVC has been replaced by recycled plastic (PET – RPETG) in HP inkjet cartridge tripack packaging sold in club stores. New HP LaserJet toner cartridge packaging uses 45 per cent less packaging material by weight, and contains a multi-chamber air bag that protects the cartridge from transport damage, dust, moisture and light.  Overall, the more efficient packaging is expected to reduce truck traffic in the U.S. and Canada by an estimated 1.5 million miles in 2007.

HP’s print cartridge packaging goes green
Hewlett-Packard announced on Thursday that it has redesigned the packaging for its printer cartridges to make it friendlier to the environment.The redesigns feature smaller and lighter packaging that contains more recycled content. These changes, according to HP, will cut down on 15 million pounds of materials over the course of 2007, including 6.8 million pounds of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic.Overall, the company estimated that it will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 37 million pounds. Because shipping containers will be able to accommodate many more packages, truck traffic for cartridge shipments is expected to be cut down by 1.5 million miles this year. Company calculations indicated that is the equivalent impact of 3,600 cars operating over the same period.For example, HP LaserJet toner cartridges now use 45 percent of the packaging material that they once did, and a shipping container can now accommodate an average of 203 of them instead of 144. The reduced container size not only cuts down on the number of emission-producing vehicles needed to ship the cartridges to retailers, it also frees up more shelf space for retailers.HP, which entered an initiative with the World Wildlife Fund in November to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, added in a statement that this is by no means the first step the company has taken toward tweaking its product packaging with environmental sustainability in mind. The overall package weight for its inkjet cartridge multipacks, for example, has been reduced by 80 percent since 2003.Thus far, the eco-friendly redesigns apply only to ink and toner print cartridges shipped throughout North America.

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February 12, 2007 at 11:49 AM