GREEN GIRL IN THE OFFICE: WHO KNEW THERE WERE HABITS HARDER TO BREAK THAN DIET COKE?

It’s Monday…again…and for most of us, it’s off to the office we go again. Like anyone else, I’m too busy to notice much around the office outside of the phone that’s always ringing and maybe the hot FedEx guy.  Everything else is a furious blur of emails and reports…usually. 

For some reason, this past week, I happen to look in the trash can and recycle bins  under my desk and what I saw shocked, no make that horrified me.  In the trash were 6 packets of artificial sweetener and that’s just for one day's tea fix.  Being the hypochondriac that I am, I kept thinking I could feel cancerous cells mutating instantly from all the chemicals.  But deeper in the bin, I found too many post it notes to count and a slew of discarded reports that I had printed.  And being an “eco-condriac,” I actually thought I could hear the cry of millions of fallen trees, as well. 

(Meanwhile, stay tuned to see what sweetener alternatives - Stevia or Agave Nectar I can try to force myself to like.  Those of you who grew up on Diet Coke know and feel my pain.  We’ve become used to that oh-so-familiar taste of chemically goodness.  Alas, time to give that up, too.)

In my office, we look pretty “E.C.”, we recycle –hell, you can’t walk three feet without running head on into a huge recycling bin.  We’re super duper meticulous about rinsing and sorting all of food-related trash, we use eco-friendly office cleaning products, CFL lights and fluorescent wherever  possible, have weekly scheduled recycling pick ups and we use paper products, including toilet paper, made from recycled materials – to which a client who came in for an office visit actually had strong feelings about (TMI, right?).  So why was I feeling so bad about the recycling bin under my own desk like it was some dirty little secret?  I think it’s all a matter of psychology really.  Have you noticed that when the document is really important – i.e. you have to show it to the boss, or a client, you tend to print it out?  It’s almost as if seeing it in printed form reinforces the “weight” of the document and proofing it seems easier.  Who knew some habits are harder to break than Diet Coke? 

Still, even if you have an office that is crunchier than most, there may be some alternative things you may have not thought of (I didn’t) and if there’s ones not mentioned here, I’d love it if you let me know so all Green Girls can benefit.

So the average person in the office throws away between 5.3 and 8 lbs of paper per week, depending on the website you reference, there are more than a few.  From just a few sources check the following factoids: 

-Approximately 400 gallons of oil to produce a ton of paper
-Each ton of paper takes about 8 cubic feet of public landfill space
-Recycling of each ton of paper saves 17 trees and 7000 gallons of water
-Pulp and paper is the 5th largest industrial consumer of energy in the world, using as much power to produce a ton of product as the iron and steel industry
-Paper comprises up to 40% of the municipal solid waste stream

What’s Your Office Footprint?
To start, cruise by an easy office waste calculator courtesy of TheGreenOffice.com where you can input your office data and their “Office Footprint Calculator™ considers your energy use, waste stream, and purchasing patterns to measure both the Global Acres required to support your activities and the CO2 emissions that result.”  It combines emission reduction and renewable energy credits measured to neutralize your office’s unique carbon footprint. 

So, besides fighting the urge to print that super important document to appease our (and by that I mean my) insecurities, what other little things can we do to nudge our office administrators to adopt more green office policies that are doable and within the realm of reason?  Although everyone in our office would love it if we managed to hoist gigantic solar panels on the roof, I don’t foresee that happening in the near future.

Why Not Stop the Junk at Work, Too?
We told you about GreenDimes.org a while back, but it would be worth brining up to your office manager or administrator.  Greendimes and other programs you can sign up for online like StopJunkMail.org can cut down on all those sales mailers that end up in the round file.  We do it at home, why not the office.  And someone told me about a service called EarthClassMail…service that proposes that instead of making physical postal deliveries which are so dependent on fuel for planes and trucks, they deliver postal mail online - where people can deal with it instantly from anywhere.  Customers log-in to view pictures of their mail and decide what they want to do with each   piece and they can choose which pieces to have opened and scanned so they can read them online, and which to recycle, archive, or have sent to them in “snail mail” form wherever they are located – “all with the click of a mouse.”  And the professional package is less than $1000 per year?  Hmmm…I need to investigate that further.  I’m sure our company controller would scoff at not being able to open our company mail…especially if it’s a check:D  I’d have to check into the security, accountability and timeliness of this service.  Anyone use anything like this before I give it a try?

Okay Whose Not Recycling Toner and Ink Cartridges?
I know this seems like a no-brainer, but I’ve been in offices that don’t take advantage of cartridge recycling programs.  According to USMayors.org, they offer a brochure with a brochure on how and why you can recycle your toner cartridges.  Several leading cartridge manufacturers like Cannon, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark and Xerox offer programs and the brochure contains all the contact info in one place.  Who knew that 97% of the materials making up a cartridge is recyclable and that equates to about 120 million pounds of recyclable material diverted from landfills each year.  Often times the packaging uses in the return shipment is recycled.  And USMayors.org offers information on an annual “Clean Your Files Day” Recycling Program centered around Earth Day that consists of more than 250 cities, business, and organizations participate each year.  The event provides a blueprint for organizing new recycling events, provides tools, methods, and information to help you with your events, acts as a catalyst to encourage year-round recycling in cities, businesses, and organizations and provides a way to recognize the remarkable recycling achievements made in cities across the country.

Green Shipping?
If only the men in brown orange and purple who deliver all the packages to us could magically lessen cost  on the environment.  The cost of shipping in terms of fuel and packaging alone isn’t something I really want to think about, but here’s no avoiding that delivery sometimes…heck, many times.  According to FedEx “In 2003, FedEx Kinko's adopted a Forest-based Products Procurement Policy” and “In 2004, FedEx Express introduced the FedEx OptiFleet E700, an environmentally-superior delivery truck, into its delivery fleet…expected to decrease particulate emissions by 96 percent, reduce smog-causing emissions by 65 percent, and travel 57 percent farther on a gallon of fuel, reducing fuel costs by over a third.”  And finally “In 2005, FedEx Express unveiled California's largest corporate solar electric system at its hub at Oakland International Airport”…with the EPA and the United States Department of Energy recognizing the FedEx Express solar hub with The 2005 Green Power Leadership Award for green power purchasing.”  UPS has adopted similar green initiatives with the addition of 50 new HEV trucks to their delivery fleet.  I did find a company, EA Lositics’ “Delivered Green” that provides a receipt from carbonfund.org proving your freight was Delivered GrEAnTM.

Now that I’m thinking about it, there IS so much more our office can do…like Green web hosting, making a commitment to clients that we provide digital reporting, billing and communications, registering for online subscriptions whenever possible and and and…whew.  One thing at a time, right ladies?  Let me know how your office is greenin’ it up.  I’m sure all of you smarty-pants Green Girls have a few office tips and tricks up your sleeves.  You know what to do!

If green is the new black, shouldn't you know what you're wearing?

-Mia Wasilevich

Dear Gigi:

While I applaud your efforts to encourage people to reduce/reuse/recycle, you have unfortunately bought into the official "party line" of the toner cartridge and printer manufacturers and their "green earth" campaigns.

Their program to "properly recycle" your toner cartridge for you has nothing to do with any desire on their part to make the earth greener and instead has everything to do with boosting their bottom line by eliminating the chance for the consumer to take advantage of far less expensive and far more environmentally friendly options for replacing their toner (like refilling their existing toner cartridges or having them remanufactured which keeps them out of the landfill far longer.)

Since we sell our ReChargX line of "RIY" (refill it yourself) toner refill kits and that might make what I am saying suspect, please don't take my word for it, simply look at the following link to see what our seemingly "Green Friends" at the major printer manufacturers really do after they have scooped up millions of cartridges that could have been reused (instead of thoughtfully being "recycled" for your convenience and for the "benefit" of planet earth):

http://www.ecorez.com/site/impact/guiyu.shtml

These programs are blatantly anti-consumer and anti-environment.

Why? Simple. A cartridge swept up in their "green recycling" program ends up in the landfills (despite their contention up to 97% can be recycled, the reality is an entirely different story for the most part).

In addition, a cartridge swept up in their program can't be refilled or remanufactured and kept out of those landfills for another 2 - 4 uses (our average ReChargX customer refills/reuses their toner cartridges 2 - 4 times before it finally dies).

As if their subterfuge wasn't bad enough, the OEMs are now routinely putting "cartridge killer chips" on the outside of their cartridges which "estimate"(!) when you are out of toner (based on page-counts and "average user toner usage" calculations) and have little or nothing to do with your actual toner usage.

(The majority of older printers had a real toner level sensor, that truly read when your cartridge was running out of toner. And, unlike many of these new "eco-friendly"/"chipped" cartridges, you could continue using the cartridge from those machines until you deemed it was time to replace it (based on good-old print quality issues on the page we all can recognize as showing a cartridge that truly is "running out of gas"), instead of being forced to rely on some chip that tells you you have supposedly used up all of your toner...)

Having been in the toner and toner cartridge recycling business for over 20 years, we know firsthand that many, if not most, of these "chipped" cartridges still contain 10 - 30% of the toner you paid for when the chip declares them "empty" and without replacement chips or knowing how to override the functions of those chips (something we provide to our ReChargX customers), the cartridge is simply dead.

(Haven't you ever wondered why your cartridge was printing just fine when the machines deems it "empty" or in need of replacement?)

Lest this get overlooked, the fact that 10 - 30% of the toner can be left in your cartridge when the chip declares it "empty" means you are tricked by the chips into buying 10 - 30% more toner than you really needed and that is pure profit for our "green friends" at the printer companies and what those chips are all about. Thanks, "Green Friends"!

What we like to say, "It's empty, not broken!" That cartridge didn't "break" when the machine says it is "toner low", it is "running out of gas" and "topping off the tank" (hopefully with our ReChargX brand toner refill kits from www.TonerRefillKits.com - shameless self promotion, I admit) can immediately bring that supposedly dead cartridge back to life for another 2 - 4 complete uses.

That's real eco-friendly, not smoke and mirrors.

Can you imagine the outrage of the average car owner if they found out their car manufacturer and the gas companies were working together to trick them into buying 10 - 30% more gas than they needed by artifically estimating their gas usage and somehow purging the remaining gas through some method similar to this?

It isn't happening with autos but it is happening with another primarily petroleum-based product and that is in your printer's toner cartridge.
(And, some printer manufacturers are so intent on "helping you" with your empties, they have even sued after market manufacturers of replacement chips which were designed with the "nefarious" purpose of enabling the end user to continue using all of the toner they paid for that remains in the cartridge when the OEM chipped "mistakenly" declared it empty so the cartridge doesn't go to the landfill sooner than absolutely necessary. With friends like that for the earth, who needs enemies?)

We routinely help our ReChargX customes use that remaining toner and refill their cartridges (instead of wasting that cartridge and the energy necessary to transport it half-way around the world for "proper recycling") and keep it out of the landfill until it is truly no longer refillable.

It's a shame that the printer manufacturer "we will recycle your cartridge for you to altruistically help keep the earth green" scam isn't getting more airplay, but that nice little prepaid label they provide in the cartridge box with a return address destination with a feel-good name like "Green Earth Campaign" is dooming millions of toner cartridges to the landfills (in China, primarily, where apparently not being eco-friendly doesn't count in the eyes of the printer manufacturers) and the chips are simply sending them to their graves (and the residents of those areas where the cartridges are burned), even sooner.

As you can tell, this real story behind this issue really bothers me and now that I have worked myself up over it (for the millionthy time in our history), I will get back to work.

Thank you for the opportunity to address this issue.

-JG