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Source Reduction-Savings for Business
ore
and more businesses, large and small, are realizing that source reduction
can mean a big payoff in reduced waste and costs. For example, a small newspaper
in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the Herald Review, has reduced its waste
by almost 30,000 pounds annually, which saves over $18,000 per year. Everyone
joins in to reduce waste, from reporters switching to narrow-ruled notebooks
to save paper, to photographers saving film by planning the number of exposures
they need before shooting.
In
the office, people reuse mailing labels, rebuild toner cartridges for
computer printers, and print on both sides of the paper. A ceramics packaging
firm has even been found to purchase the paper left over from the printing
process. This "waste exchange" benefits both companies. The newspaper
also has found ways to reuse waste ink, film-developing chemicals, and
paste-up sheets. These innovative ideas reduce both the amount and the
toxicity of the company's wastes.
A
large furniture manufacturer, Herman Miller, Inc. (HMI) of Zeeland, Michigan,
has reaped savings of $1.4 million annually through waste prevention.
It devised packaging containers that can be reused 80 to 100 times and
that are made from recycled detergent and milk containers.
Another
approach HMI uses is cartonless packaging. This means just placing cardboard
edges on the corners of some furniture and wrapping the furniture with
plastic film rather than boxing it. The cardboard edges are reused and
the plastic film is recycled. This practice has saved HMI $250,000 a year
for one type of product. In addition to internal efforts, HMI cosponsors
an annual waste exchange fair for other businesses to share information
and materials. Workshops are also held to educate attendees about waste
prevention. The first fair brought together over 300 people and was so
successful that attendance tripled at the second one.
