Recycling: Still Green or Back to the Landfills? It's all About Supply and Demand

Last summer I visited a recycling center in NAPA during an HP Green Symposium. The tour was fascinating but the winery tour was better.

At that time, the recycling center had pallets of plastic, paper, etc. stacked nearly three stories tall, ready for shipment to China.

Each pallet represented $1,200.00 of revenue.

This was a great example of how our(the U.S.) green initiatives were working - reducing landfill materials, allowing emerging economies to take advantage of already processed materials and making money.

This also made we "Global Citizens" feel better.

Since that trip to NAPA, I have discussed with many clients how the Green Initiative "...finally took off, only after we figured out how to make or save money by implementing certain programs...it is all about the Color of Money..."

Of course, I am routinely accused of being "cynical" - most want to believe that they are doing their part to "save the planet" without monetary motivation. And they are, just not the way they think they are.

"If I can prevent just one tree from being cut down, then I can sleep better at night..."

A mantra repeated all over the globe...right...

Consider this sales model -

I charge my clients a monthly amount - for this charge, I will visit them each week, and remove their unwanted materials - waste. I will also charge an additional flat amount to provide a special container which my client will fill with other materials; materials that can be "recycled".

This requires clients to pre-sort "bad waste" from "good waste" - a task they are willing to allow their employees to do, on the company dime.

As a sales person, once a week I visit 240 customers.

I remove both waste materials - the recycling goes to my multi-million dollar plant where everything is sorted and made ready for shipment all over the world; especially China.

My big huge machine separates and processes all this junk and I sell it all overseas.

Because there is a demand.

That was the summer of 2008 before the Chinese Olympics - right after the Olympics, China decided not to import anymore US trash - boom.

And today, many large recyclers say they are accumulating tons of material, either because they have contracts with big cities to continue to take the scrap or because they are banking on a price rebound in the next six months to a year.

“We’re warehousing it and warehousing it and warehousing it,” said Johnny Gold, senior vice president at the Newark Group. His company has 13 recycling plants across the country. He said the industry had seen downturns before but not like this. “We never saw this coming.”

You think the stock market has dropped - you ain't seen nothing like this.

On the West Coast, for example, mixed paper is selling for $20 to $25 a ton, down from $105 in October, according to Official Board Markets.

And recyclers say tin is worth about $5 a ton, down from $327 earlier this year. There is greater domestic demand for glass, so its price has not fallen as much.



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Killer Toner is Back: New Study Confirms Laser Printers release "tiny toxic particles" - But so does making Toast.

July, 2009

First reported here nearly a year ago, researchers found "toxic particles" are released whenever an office laser printer heats up.

In 2007, Physicist, Professor Lidia Morawska, from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane and colleagues were the first to show that laser printers in offices produce high levels of ultrafine particles (UFPs), less than 100 nanometres in width (also called nanoparticles).

From the study:

"The high standard deviation of the average emission rates estimated in this study also indicates that the particle emission process and the behavior of individual printers are complex and that they are still far from being completely understood," the study said. "Many factors, such as printer model, printer age, cartridge model, and cartridge age may affect the particle emission process and all of these factors require further study." - Huh?

Did a primary buffer panel just fall off my ship, for no apparent reason?

Or does the above paragraph simply translate into, "...we really don't know if all this means anything..."?

The study included Canon (NYSE: CAJ), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Ricoh, and Toshiba printers sold in Australia and the United States.

Incorrectly reported over a year ago, toner particles are not being emitted.

From a different study in Braunschweig, Germany, researchers examined modified printers that “print” without any paper or toner.

From the study:

“The amazing thing is that the ultra-fine particles are still produced even in this case. The cause is the fixing unit – a component that heats up as high as 220°C during the printing process in order to fix the toner particles on the paper,” explains WKI scientist Dr. Michael Wensing.

“...what some printers do emit are ultra-fine particles made of volatile organic-chemical substances,” says WKI head of department Prof. Dr. Tunga Salthammer. “One essential property of these ultra-fine particles is their volatility, which indicates that we are not looking at toner dust.”

The high temperatures cause volatile substances such as paraffins and silicon oils to evaporate, and these accumulate as ulta-fine particles.

The scientists from Braunschweig observed similar phenomena – the formation of ultra-fine particles of volatile organic substances when heated – during typical household activities such as cooking, baking, or making toast.

After reading dozens of articles and composites of the actual studies this is what I see:

1. No toner is being emitted by any output device.

2. The studies are inconclusive, although there is proof that nano-particles are being emitted.

3. There is NO evidence or even a study being conducted to prove or disprove harm may result from exposure to these nano-particles.

4. Articles regarding this development are full of scare words and tactics. Implicitly comparing these nano-particles with smoking and alluding to unproven health problems.

So, beware - the Toner police are about to come down on the printer industry.

Or maybe they will simply confiscate our toasters...

Want to learn more?

Check this out:

Photocopiers and Laser Printers Health Hazards
Coates Electrographics Addresses Toner Health Concerns

Pansonic Update - Shrinking or Lean and Mean?

Those who predicted the demise of the Panasonic copier channel may see their predictions come to pass sooner than later.

Panasonic reduced overall headcount by 15,000, the information presented here,just 10 days ago.

In a letter sent out to most of their dealers, Panasonic articulates the fact that some are now "Resellers" - not Dealers.

A nuance, one that means you are now more self-reliant -

Dealers typically have more direct support from the manufacturer than resellers.

Art Post has a great collection of statements here.

Japan Law Reduces Down to 70%, the amount of Recycled Paper to be Used in Copiers

Kyodo News

Government guidelines for the "green purchase" law were revised Friday to reduce the amount of recycled paper that must be used in copiers to 70 percent instead of 100 percent.

The law, which goes into effect April 1, requires government ministries and agencies to use environment-friendly products in designated equipment.

The guidelines were eased because supplies of recycled paper are short. This will allow paper makers to diversify the sources of natural materials they use to produce paper used by the government, including lumber taken from trees felled to thin forests.

According to an Environment Ministry estimate, the 40,000 tons of 100 percent recycled paper produced each year in Japan cannot meet the annual demand of 300,000 tons used by public offices at the central and municipal levels.

The revised guidelines allow copier paper used at government offices to contain a certain percent of lumber from felled trees and other sources certified by a third-party entity as derived from environmental-friendly activity.

Aside from paper, the revised guidelines will also list for the first time the minimum standards of functionality for solar-power systems, including specifications for power-generation efficiency and durability.

Ode to Trader Joe's - Friday is Fun Day

If you don't know Trader Joe's - too bad for you.

The home of 2-Buck Chuck and all things organic...