Ink

• Almost 8 ink cartridges are thrown away per second. In one year if all of the world's discarded ink cartridges were stacked end-to-end they would circle the world 3 times.
• A laser printer cartridge that is thrown away in a landfill can take up to 450 years to decompose.
• Every remanufactured cartridge can prevent 3.5 lbs of solid waste from ending up in a landfill.
• 70% of all used printer cartridges in the world are currently thrown away. 

Plastic

• Recycled #1 plastics (Soda Bottles) can be made into carpeting, fleece clothing, tote bags, and picnic tables.
• Americans use 29,000,000,000 plastic water bottles every year, most of which are thrown away.
• The energy saved by recycling 1 bottle can power a computer for 25 minutes. Based on the above fact this means that we could power 130,208 computers for one full 8 hour work-day if every bottle that was used for one hour was recycled.
• Recycling plastic saves as much as twice the energy it would take to burn it in an incinerator.
• Since 1950, we have consumed as much plastic as all the generations before us combined.
• Plastics can take up to 400 years to break down in a landfill.
• If you lined up all the polystyrene foam cups made in just 1 day they would circle the earth.
• Plastics make up about 8% of America's Municipal Solid Waste.
• The U.S. post consumer plastics industry employs over 52,000 workers.
• Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

Cans

• Making aluminum cans from recycled materials instead of virgin materials uses 95% less energy.
• Aluminum cans will litter the Earth for 500 years.
• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to power a TV or a 100-watt light bulb for three hours.
• 350,000 aluminum cans are produced every minute.
• There is no limit to the amount of times you can recycle an aluminum can.
• We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year.

Paper:

• Over 90% of all products in the United States are shipped in cardboard boxes.
• The EPA reported in 1995 that for every 15,000 tons of old newspapers collected for recycling approximately 30 people are employed.
• 1 ton of virgin newsprint uses 12 trees.
• 1 ton of cardboard boxes are equal to 17 trees.
• The average American uses seven trees a year in wood paper and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year.
• To produce each week's Sunday newspaper, 500,000 trees must be cut down. Recycling a single run of the New York Times would save 75,000 trees.
• Americans throw away 85% of office paper used.
• Each year 27 million acres of tropical rainforest are destroyed. That dwarfs the size of Ohio, and translates to 74,000 acres per day, 3,000 acres per hour, or 50 acres per minute.
• 9% of an average urban garbage dump consists of cardboard boxes.
• Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less air pollution!
• The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.

General:

• Ford motor company indicates that 75% of every vehicle is recyclable.
• About 1/3 the contents of an average landfill is made up of thrown away packaging materials.
• Americans dump the equivalent of more than 21 million shopping bags full of food into landfills every year.
• The oil equivalent of 35 Exxon Valdez tankers is dumped into our nation’s rivers, lakes, and streams every year as used motor oil! Additionally, used motor oil is far more deadly than crude oil.
• The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year. This means that 5% of the world's people generate 40% of the world's waste.
• For every $10 spent spent on a product, $1 (10%) on average goes for packaging that is thrown away. Packaging represents about 65% of household trash.
• On average, it costs $30 per ton to recycle trash, $50 per ton to send it to a landfill, and $65 to $75 per ton to incinerate it.
• Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.
• Motor oil never wears out it just gets dirty. Oil can be recycled, re-refined and used again, reducing our reliance on imported oil.
• Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 styrofoam coffee cups every year.
• The EPA estimates that 3 billion dollars a year are spent on electricity to run machines that are left on when not in use.

The recycling symbol we have all become so familiar with has some meaning behind its design.

Each one of the arrows stands for one of the three R’s of recycling:

• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle

Reduce: The first step to improving and preserving our environment is for everyone to look at what they use and to see where consumption can be reduced. Reduce is the first R of the 3 R’s and is arguably the most important. Every time we make a conscious decision to reduce, we eliminate 100% of the negative environmental costs associated with production.

Reuse: Every time a product is reused instead of discarded it helps to preserve our precious natural resources, and also reduces the amount of waste that ends up in a landfill. Environmental preservation, cost savings, and decreased production requirements - the benefits of reusing are virtually unlimited.

Recycle: If you cannot avoid using a product, and you are unable to reuse it, than recycling is the only environmentally conscious option. When you recycle a product, you help to significantly cut down on the impact that item has on our environment. Production is the most costly part of delivering a product to you. Trees were cut down, oil was burned, and pollution was generated. When an item is recycled, the cost of production is used to generate more benefits in the system instead of going to virgin production.

Note: Due to the many types of plastics and the many ways to recycle plastic, the amount of pollution saved cannot be accurately judged. The most important part of recycling plastic is the amount of oil that is saved. 8% of the oil that is consumed in the world is used to manufacture virgin plastic.

Never underestimate the sum power of small actions. Our environment doesn't need one magic pill, it needs us to make better decisions in our daily life:

• Evaluate your office as a whole and try to identify key areas where you think there is room for improvement.
• Always keep the old adage in mind “Rome wasn’t built in a day” you can’t fix everything over night, and it is not likely that you will ever be able to correct every problem. The most important thing is to do something.
• While doing your evaluation, bring in outside voices. Getting 'buy in' from the rest of your team will make implementing any changes easier. Encourage everyone to contribute ideas on how to lessen the impact of your office.
• Hang recycling signs around the office as a reminder, this will help to ensure it is something that is on everyone’s mind. You can download our ready-made signs for this purpose.
• The average office employee uses 10,000 sheets of paper a year. Send memos via e-mail instead of printing.
• Turn off your computer monitor when you go to lunch.
• Turn off your computer when you leave for the day.
• Set the screen saver on your computer to be a blank screen. An active screen saves uses more energy than a blank one.
• Purchase reusable silverware instead of disposable plastic ware. There is nothing wrong with disposable silverware, when used conscientiously, and not on a regular basis. However when plastic silverware is available, many people will use it without thinking about the impact. We've all used a plastic spoon one time to stir our coffee and then thrown it away.
• Set all of the office printers to print double sided by default.
• Set the margins on the office printers to be smaller, allowing more text to appear on each page and using less paper.
• Don’t put disposable cups by the water cooler. Encourage employees to bring in a cup from home that can be kept at their desk.
• Get an endless water filtration cooler. If your office still has a water cooler that takes water bottles look into getting a filtered water cooler. On average this type of system will save the company money, and it is more environmentally friendly. By using an endless water filtration system, you will eliminate the need for a water truck to come deliver and pick up plastic water jugs.
• Keep old packing supplies. When your company receives packages, break down the boxes and save them to use for future shipments. Get a large garbage bag that can be used to save old packing peanuts. Saving old packing supplies is not only a great way to reuse, but it will also save your company money.
• Buy remanufactured ink cartridges. These cartridges are significantly cheaper than new cartridges and they work just as well as the name-brand ink. When you have to throw away a cartridge, recycle it. Visit the Where to Recycle tab on this page for drop-off locations.
• Place special garbage pails around the office marked for recycling only. The more of these cans there are, the more likely people will be to use them. Use our ready-made signs to mark your office drop-off bins. Consider putting lids on recycling pails that only allow certain shaped items (such as cans) to fit in - this will encourage proper use of the bins.
• Shred scrap paper and use as packaging cushioning for shipping products.
• Try to use a box that correctly fits the item that you are sending. By ensuring that the box you are shipping your products in is not to large, you will help prevent the item from breaking during transit, and will also help reduce the amount of corrugated and packaging cushioning used.
• Turn off the lights in rooms that are not being used. Lighting accounts for 45% of the electricity used in an office building.
• Carpool to work with a fellow employee. If nothing else this will save you money every month. The chart below illustrates the cost per passenger per month to commute to work:

• Put hand dryers in the bathrooms instead of paper towels. If your company does not want to spend the money to invest in hand dryers, then purchase recycled bathroom products.
• Use house hold products such as baking soda and vinegar to clean up the office. These products are not only environmentally sound but they are also nontoxic so they are not dangerous to your coworker ’s health. There are also many pre-bottled cleaners now on the market that are 100% natural.
• Look for the Energy Star logo. When purchasing new office equipment, purchase energy efficient equipment. This equipment does significantly more than you think. If all of the machines in an office were changed over to energy efficient machines it could save your company up to 80% on your electric bill. It could also save 20% - 30% on your air-conditioning costs since this equipment gives off less heat.
• Pay your bills online. By asking vendors to send your invoices via e-mail you can help protect our trees and be more efficient.
• If possible try to work from home one or two days a week. The average American spends 56 hours a year commuting to work. This is a 30% increase from 10 years ago.
• Think out side of your own office. Start to partner with vendors who are environmentally conscious. BoxSource is a good one. :)