HP announced Feb. 8 that its redesigned print cartridge packaging for North America will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 37 million pounds in 2007 -- the equivalent of taking 3,600 cars off the road for one year.
The emissions savings are the result of smaller, lighter packages that both reduce the total carbon footprint of each cartridge and the truck and freighter transportation traffic required to ship them. Newer packaging also contains more recyclable and recycled content.
The redesigned print cartridge packaging will eliminate the use of nearly 15 million pounds of materials, including 3 million pounds of corrugated cardboard in 2007. The packaging also will eliminate the use of more than 6.8 million pounds of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic through material reduction and substitution of recycled content plastic and paperboard. PVC has been eliminated in HP's inkjet cartridge multipacks as well.
The new toner cartridge packaging uses 45% less packaging material by weight. It also contains a multi-chamber air bag that protects the cartridge from transport damage, dust, moisture and light. The smaller boxes can be shipped 30% more efficiently - a standard shipping pallet holds 203 cartridges instead of the previous 144. The efficient packaging is expected to reduce truck traffic in the U.S and Canada by an estimated 1.5 million miles in 2007.
"Environmental considerations are key to Office Depot's business," said Yalmaz Siddiqui, environmental strategy advisor, Office Depot. "We are pleased to see a manufacturer like HP make changes that are in step with our environmental objectives and can also benefit our business goals."
