Conference 7.286::digital

    It's started.  Most 3M (Maynard, Marlborough, Merrimack) area plants
    are already recycling paper.  Each employee has a separate blue
    wastebasket in their office marked "RECYCLE ONLY".  They empty it as
    necessary in large blue wheeled bins.  The paper is picked up as
    necessary by a truck which takes it to a recycling facility.

Re .0

   We have a recycling 'policy' in REO (Reading, England). It came into
   effect about 3-4 months ago. Each employee has a green bin under
   their desk for paper. The cleaners then collect this when they come
   round for the other refuse and it gets shredded before leaving the
   site. Then an external company does the recycling.

   The problem in getting this system in place did not seem to be any
   fault of Digital's, who I believe carried the whole thing through
   very well. The main problem was actually finding a company in the
   area who could cope with the large amounts of waste paper (about
   2,400 employees in Reading) that would need to be recycled.

   I think Digital is doing the best it can in terms of policies. We
   don't need more policies to get things done - just people who have the
   determination to put recycling procedures in place. Digital already
   has the corporate aim of 'Being a good environmental citizen in all
   countries in which it does business' and also 'to conserve and 
   recycle materials as an integral part of business operations' - what
   more do we need?

   Incidentally, we also have a bottle bank for glass recycling here too.

	Craig

    Keith,
    
    I couldn't agree with you more.  I did something about it here at NQO
    in Nashua NH.  Starting in December '89 we began a recycling program
    where we recycle our aluminum cans, cardboard, and paper (we always
    recycled paper, but not to the extent we do now).
    
    About 60% of the "Garbage" we generate here is cardboard.  It really
    annoyed me that we were just throwing it away, so I suggested that we
    recycle it and the RECYCLING SGIA was created, we just recently changed
    our name to "Earth Allies".
    
    Please keep me informed as to any progress at your plant on recycling,
    I'd be interested in what is happening there.
    
    		keep in touch,
    
    			John

    MRO was recycling printout paper many years ago.  Here in HLO, we now
    have the two-wastebasket scheme, and the cleaning crew empties the
    recycle-paper wastebaskets every other day.  Soda cans go into the
    "Santa Fund" bin next to the vending machine - I'm not a big
    contributor to that since I don't drink fizzy sugar-water, though.
    I believe that a small amount of money only is saved by recycling the
    usable paper, since it is worth very little, but it is the right thing
    to do compared to having it hauled to a landfill.

    WHY do YOU think THAT writing EVERY alternate WORD (or almost) MAKES
    your TEXT more READABLE?
    
    IT IRRITATES. As YOU have AN interesting MESSAGE I suggest you DELIVER
    it in a READABLE fashion.
    
    
    						- andy

    re .0
    
    Principle is good but don't expect to save money -  as far as I
    know it costs us money to recycle paper here in Nijmegen. 
    
    Where you might save more is if more categories of printed /copied
    output could just be recycled directly without having to be shredded
    first.
    
    j.e.
    
    p.s. to be really effective - please do not use paper in the first
    place.

Segregating materials and sending them off for processing 
is the dead-end street end of the deal.
Recycling will never provide the benefits the environment
and business need until the consumption side of the ledger
is improved.

If you want Digital to take a leadership position in EFFECTIVE
recycling, Digital must mandate the use of recycled raw materials,
components, and finished goods.  We must be willing to buy back what
we sell.

Cardboard is probably a good place to start.  We can require that our
package vendors use a certain percentage of used materials in the
manufacture of the cardboard we buy.

We should seek to fund and support improvements in paper recycling
technology.  At present, the amount of used material that can be 
included in new, good quality paper suitable for photocopiers and 
laser printers is limited.

Specs for recycled plastics, glass, and whatever else we use should
be written to encourage the re-use of recycled materials.

- tom]

    As an active recycler, one of the things that often gets missed is
    reusing. Use the back side of memos before you recycle them. Maybe we
    should prohibit the purchase of those 'While you were Out' pads (for
    example). By reusing, you obviously buy less...right there, there's a
    dollar saving for Digital (and, hopefully, everyone else). Think about
    the old demand/supply graphs - if there's lower demand for a product,
    in theory it's price should drop. So, in theory, by reusing and
    creating a smaller demand, DEC can save some money. Unfortunately, lots
    of companies will have to do this, DEC alone can't solve the problem,
    but it certainly can help!
    
    Take a look in the dumpsters some day...see those skids...all that
    paper...etc...Something's got to be done and soon!
    
    /bruce

    Here in the Kanata plant, we use a lot, I mean a LOT of cardboard.
    This cardboard arrives with products that we use from other DEC
    sites and external vendors.  DEC buys boxes, ships the boxes to DEC,
    and then DEC throws the box away.  If you think this is ludricous,
    we used to box stuff in one side of the building and then throw out
    the box in the other side of the building.
    
    Well, we've gotten a little smarter these days.  There is a big
    corporate push to have recyclable totes for interplant shipments
    of material (this helps in JIT pull activities too).  Also, I've
    heard rumors that ALL cardboard is to be eliminated from the
    manufacturing process (except for shipment to end user customers)
    in like the next 2 years.  Does anybody have info on this?
    
    BTW, we also have a bin in our cafeteria we put empty aluminum
    cans into.

    While I don't think there are any issues in this notes file (recycling
    included) which have NO pros or cons... I think we are on the right
    track in general. My office has instituted multiple bins/sorting.
    Along the lines of one of the notes about preventing paper from
    entering the system, somebody put signs on our laser printers reading
    'It costs Digital 10 cents for every page printed'. This is the kind of
    awareness-raising that makes people stop unthinking behaviour.
    I doubt the figure is accurate, but it definitely does not cost
    nothing.
    
    erik

re.9:

I think you mean corrugated fibre board and not cardboard which is not 
suitable for packing large, heavy objects.

Pedantically yours,
Dave.

    We in MRO have the two baskets in every office.  I go out of my way
    before puting stuff in POPI to see if any of those pages can go in the
    recycle basket.  I was happy about doing this until this past week.
    Digital now has a newspaper they put out that has been made with
    recycled paper.  This newspaper CAN NOT be put in our recycle bins.
    So what are we doing, just recycling so DEC can use it again for
    something we can probably do without and we just end up throwing it 
    out anyway??  Seems like a waste to me!
    
    Chris D.

    
    Why bother? Because using it twice is still better than using it once.
    
    Those who expect a revolution in waste management will continue to be
    disappointed. Evolutions are much easier to attain.

    But I don't see a real need for this paper.  To me we are just
    recycling so DEC can come up with more waste.  If we really get with it
    and everyone recycles every possible piece of paper they can, will DEC
    just make this newspaper a daily paper?  I don't know, it's sorta like
    asking us to turn the heat down in our houses to save oil, then having
    the politician's turn their's up because there's more available.
    
    Chris D.

Re the new newspaper....

Isn't it replacing a couple of the fancy-smancy glossy papers that we
get at home?  I would suspect that the new style is less expensive to
produce and has a very reduced cost of distribution. ie no US postage
rates even bulk rate. 

To some extent in a bizarre sense creating a use for recycled
newsprint or paper is a goodness regardless of the contents of the
newspaper.  Create a demand and perhaps supply will meet it. Dollar
costs over the long run will be reduced. 

Mini-soap box... Being environmentally aware is not living in a cave
and having zero waste. 
	It's okay to print things. 
	It's okay to throw things away. 
	It's okay to use disposable things (when it makes sense)
	It's okay to drive and flush and to spray and... 

But think about it - make a change that you can handle - after you 
feel comfortable with it - make another change......so forth.

Come join the discussions in the WashDC::environmental_issues notes 
file. tim.,.

From what I understand, E.L. Harvey & Sons, of Westboro, Mass, USA, is under
contract to take all of the paper that DEC is currently recycling.  The paper
that they are taking is of a *high* grade.  Most office paper is.

I met Ben Harvey at a recent MassRecycle meeting, and we discussed this policy,
since I noticed that many items, including newspapers, were not included as
part of the package.  Ironically, I take my own newspapers to their center in
Westboro about every other month, where his firm takes all kinds of paper (in
fact, I now take all my lower grade paper *home* to include with my newspapers).
I asked him, "Why isn't this stuff included?"  And the answer is:

He is *very* willing to take other grades of paper, too.  He definitely does
*NOT* want it mixed in with the office-grade paper.  So, if DEC is willing to 
put out yet another garbage basket for the lower grades of paper, he is willing
to collect it as well.  Of course, it will cost more for DEC to do this, since
the $$/ton is less for this kind of paper.  How much less?  I don't know.  We
didn't get into it.

If anyone knows how to get in touch with Mary Bickford, who started DEC's
recycling program in the Mill (I understand she is retired), I'd be happy to
help try to push this through.

If anyone has any more information, or if you have any questions, please feel
free to contact me via E-mail.

                                                .steve.

p.s. re .15.  Hey Tim, you never got back to me.  What's up?

   ZKO now has newspaper (low grade) recycle bins in the foyers beside the
   newspaper vending machines. 
   
   q
   

    re .16
    I don't know about Harvey collecting ALL of DEC's recyclable stuff.
    Here in PKO we are allowed to put any recyclable paper (magazines,
    newsprint, printer paper) into the same blue recycling bin.  That's
    exactly what the list above the bin says.
    

E. L. Harvey is NOT the only paper recycling vendor used by 
Digital.  If you want to set up a recycling program at your site, 
I suggest you talk with the facilities people.  They should be 
able to implement a recycling program with a qualified vendor.