Today most of us are taking responsibility for the environmental impact our choices can make on the world. In our personal space, we recycle everything from old cell phones to cereal boxes. Just as commercial and residential building contractors are integrating sustainable or recycled materials in homes and offices they build, so should businesses have a similar social and ethical responsibility to the environment. While most companies ask their employees to recycle their plastic water bottles, certain measures should also be taken to recycle office equipment.
When purchasing a copy machine, it is important to consider the environmental effects of the copier throughout its life cycle in regards to manufacturing, packaging, usage, shipping and disposal. Let’s consider that for each 50-story commercial building in America there were five companies per floor, each with four copy machines, that is a total of 1,000 copy machines per building. Now if one were to take that number and multiply it by the number of commercial buildings in the United States, that is an outrageous number of copy machines! If only 1000 of those companies were to purchase refurbished copiers, or donate the used ones upon purchasing new or leased copiers, imagine the ‘green’ impact that could have on the environment!
The first environmental benefit to buying a refurbished copy machine is eliminating the need to purchase the raw materials needed for producing a new copier, in effect reducing the end users carbon footprint. If one were to consider the amount of carbon produced through manufacturing and shipping a new machine, purchasing a refurbished one makes perfect sense.
The obvious ‘green’ advantage to purchasing a refurbished copier is the reduction of the wasteful dumping of perfectly serviceable machine. It takes decades, if ever, for the plastic material that an ink cartridge is housed in to decompose. And printer ink should be properly disposed, as it is non-biodegradable and toxic to the environment. Purchasing a refurbished copier ensures that a copier does not end up in a landfill, in effect reducing waste.
Another approach to keeping your office ‘green’ is to purchase a refurbished copier which features the ENERGY STAR label. According to the EPA, using an ENERGY STAR copier can reduce that machines annual electricity bills by nearly 60 percent, by shutting off after a period of inactivity. High-speed copiers have a duplexing option that when set to double-sided copies can reduce paper usage by at least 25{935df326bf8786fd6731f48a04668d2c59cbc638da1dd11cbd372b56fcc68833}.
If your copier is not ready for the landfill, refurbishing it is a good place to start. If it is ready to retire, buying a refurbished copier is unquestionably the ‘green’ approach to replacing it.
