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Philips is established as a consumer brand, but with the launch of its ﬁrst generation of Philips-branded multifunction laser faxes, it is now addressing the business-to-business market.

Another way to reduce the environmental impact of printer use, say suppliers of third party products, is to use recycled printer supplies, which are cheaper than the manufacturers’ own offerings, extend the life of inkjet/toner cartridges and provide a valuable source of income for charities that collect and sell on used cartridges.

Printer manufacturers dismiss these compatibles as inferior to original supplies, yet when it suits them, several are more than happy to play in that market. At SOPX, for example, Ricoh subsidiary Infotec was promoting its ImageJet brand of compatible supplies, including the T range of recycled cartridges.

New build third party compatibles like Media Sciences’ toner cartridges and solid ink sticks, shown on the Beta Distribution stand, may not provide th environmental savings of a recycled cartridge, but they do give customers a tempting 30% price reduction compared to original supplies from Brother, Dell, Epson, Konica Minolta, O Ricoh, Samsung, Tektronix and Xerox.

The development of bioplastics gives consumers an additional option to the three Rs, viz. to compost.

A number of manufacturers were showing products that are claimed to biodegrade if composted, among them Postsafe, which is promoting its ExtraStrong Biodegradable Envelopes by giving away free books of First Class Stamps to qualifying customers, and Atlanta, which was formed by an MBO of Smead Europe in September 2008. It was previewing its as yet un-named green range of desk accessories made from a mix of 40% wood and 60% PLA (a plastic derived from corn starch). This combination is compostable (Atlanta is currently running tests to see how long it takes to degrade), but may be hard to recycle as the different components will need to be separated. Atlanta was also showing Resolution ﬁling trays that are made from 100%

e highlights were new additions to 100% recycled and recyclable Earth Series ktop accessories, including a monitor and ptop riser (1); a new range of FSC-certiﬁed pencils and dry highlighters from Stabilo (2); Evolve 75, a 75gsm and 75% recycled addition to M-real’s recycled paper range, specially developed for cost-conscious buyers (3); lighter 60 and 70gsm papers from Mondi that give consumers a less wasteful alternative to 80gsm grades (4); and Mitsubishi Pencil Company’s Powertank Eco featuring a barrel made from recycled polycarbonate plastic and a grip made from resin and sawdust from the company’s pencil factory (5).

post consumer waste but priced at the same level as a virgin product. These are not the only ways in which Atlanta is aiming to improve the environmental performance of its products. This year it plans to standardise on FSC-certiﬁed paper for all its business forms and paper products and it has already re-designed its plastic letter trays to reduce packaging and shipping requirements. Taking a small notch out of the back of the tray has allowed Atlanta to stack trays top to tail and so ﬁt 10 units in a box that would

six.

y to minimise the ntal impact of ery is to re-use items much as possible fore they are recycled. is is the major selling oint of Shuttlepost’s re-usable polypropylene envelopes. The envelopes are 100% yclable and there e plans to introduce a 0% recycled version in e future.