Hundreds of thousands of used ink and toner cartridges will now be recycled instead of thrown onto scrap heaps, with office automation company Itec adding its muscle to a national recycling project by installing recycling boxes at its 46 branches.

The company has added its clout to a long-running initiative started by printer company Lexmark, the Lexmark Cartridge Collection Programme.

While Itec already runs its own environmental sustainability programme with impactChoice, adding its weight to Lexmark’s programme should make a vast difference in the number of cartridges being re-used rather than dumped as pollution.

Figures from IDC show that approximately 11 million cartridges are thrown into landfills each year in South Africa, leaching inks and powders into the soil and water.

“We have a zero-to-landfill policy so we want to get the cartridges returned to strip out the components and make sure they are re-used or disposed of in a safe way,” says Lexmark’s Country Manager Mark Hiller.

“The reverse logistics of getting the cartridges back is the challenge. Itec is one of our partners in taking our products to market, and as part of this programme, Itec will recycle cartridges from its customers by returning them to us,” says Hiller. “We expect to see a significant increase now that Itec is involved due to the number of printers within Itec’s client base, thereby expanding our catchment area.”

Itec Marketing Manager Kim Thompson says joining the programme further strengthens Itec’s commitment to environmental sustainability.

Itec has sent recycling boxes to all its dealers and will accept used cartridges of any brand. “We are also not limiting the programme to our client base. Staff from any company may drop off their cartridges with our dealers,” says Thompson.

“The ability to provide clients with environmental sustainability solutions that are practical and easy to implement is very important to us, so when Lexmark approached us to work with its recycling project, we were happy to supplement our existing green efforts,” she says. “People are becoming increasingly aware of the impact they are having on the environment, so they are more inclined to participate than before. Everybody uses cartridges and toners and this is an easy way for people to drop them off and contribute to the environment.”

While large corporate customers and Itec dealers have recycling boxes on their premises, individuals can also participate because every Lexmark ink cartridge has a prepaid envelope in the pack so consumers can conveniently return the old one.

Itec’s main green initiative is impactChoice, where it helps clients neutralise the environmental impact of their office equipment. “With impactChoice we implement solutions for customers to make the office automation products they are using carbon neutral,” says Thompson. “We encourage customers to have a greenhouse gas audit to establish what their carbon footprint is and offset everything including their delivery vehicles, printing equipment, generators and even their events,” says Thompson.

Customers pay a monthly fee based on their carbon footprint and the cash is invested into initiatives such as the Sofala Community Carbon project in Mozambique, which rehabilitates degraded forests.

Through its relationship with impactChoice, Itec issues clients guaranteed carbon offset credits backed up by micro-certificates. These micro-certificates are, in turn, linked to verifiable and audited, macro Voluntary Emission Reduction Certificates, Certified Emission Reduction Certificates, or Renewable Energy Certificates as traded on the global voluntary and formal carbon exchanges. This also puts clients a step ahead of South Africa’s carbon emission requirements.

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