Canary Wharf Office Supplies offers a simple waste solution to facilitate the collection of used laser printer and inkjet cartridges. The collection program is both simple and free to join, and a rewarding way of reducing the carbon footprint that printing generates.
Our Zero to Landfill policy goes above and beyond to ensure our clients are compliant with current waste legislation.
We recognise that organisations of all kinds are determined to achieve and demonstrate sound environmental performance by controlling the impact on the environment by their activities, products and services. This is in the context of growing environmental awareness, increasingly stringent legislation and other factors promoting environmental protection and best practice.
We are concerned about the environment and recognise that good environmental management must be an integral and fundamental part of our corporate business strategy. Helping to save the environment is not only our future, but also our business and our commitment to this challenge is vast.
Every year over 500 million empty toner and inkjet cartridges (“empties”) go to landfill. Our aim is to help reduce this figure so as to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations, enabling Canary Wharf Office Supplies to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
The majority of all empty toner and inkjet cartridges collected by Canary Wharf Office Supplies are sold back into the market to companies that will remanufacture them, who will in turn, once processed, then sell them to the dealer or end consumer as a remanufactured, recycled or compatible cartridge. The points below help to explain what we do with those items that cannot go through this channel i.e. packaging and damaged products.
· All cardboard packaging (boxes, end-caps etc) is sent to local paper mills for recycling.
· Some reject or valueless empties are returned to the OEM for recycling in accordance with their policies and legislative obligations.
· Damaged empties that have value are sold or given to remanufacturers to be used for spare parts.
· Damaged empties that have no value are sent to facilities for raw material recycling i.e. broken down into plastic, aluminium and steel.
· Damaged or odd sized pallets are sent for re-use or recycling.
· Polystyrene packaging is sent to specialised recyclers.
· Plastic cartridge bags are sent for plastics recycling.
In the UK, Section 34, of The Environmental Protection Act 1990 “imposes a duty of care on persons concerned with controlled waste”. In short, the Duty of Care says that you must take all reasonable steps to keep your waste safe and that if you give your waste to someone, that you need to be sure that they are authorised to take it.
Whilst all the large reputable waste collectors are, without question, licensed and authorised to collect your ‘waste’ (i.e. used cartridges), none are specialists like Canary Wharf Office Supplies, in the processing of new and used cartridges.
What that means is that the cartridges they collect are inevitably mixed in with your general rubbish and end up in landfill.
Whilst that does not mean that either you or the reputable licensed waste collector have done anything illegal, it could perhaps be described as immoral given the greener solutions that Canary Wharf Office Supplies can provide.
At Canary Wharf Office Supplies we are passionate about what we do which is enforced by our 'zero to landfill' initiative.
Canary Wharf Office Supplies accepts that we have both a moral and social responsibility to process ink and toner cartridges in a way that goes beyond legislative requirements. Our 'zero to landfill' initiative and carbon footprint reviews are both prime examples of our commitment to going above and beyond