Recycling cartridges

Recycling cartridges

On Aug. 26, 2000 I attended the launch of the "HP Laserjet
Print Cartridge Recycling Program", held at the parking lot of
BNI 46 on Jl. Sudirman. State minister for Environment Sonny
Keraf and Minister of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure
Erna Witular were scheduled to attend but were unavailable due to
the Cabinet installation at the State Palace held on the same
day.

The attendees were asked to bring along used toner cartridges
and return them to Hewlett Packard (HP). As the leading
manufacturer of laserjet printers and toner cartridges, HP does
not neglect the environment. HP is aware that toner cartridges
are not environmentally friendly and therefore steps should be
taken to recycle them. Otherwise, used print cartridges will just
be thrown away by the users and will not be recycled properly.

According to HP's press release, since 1991, HP has recycled
over 31.4 million cartridges, which if laid on top of each other,
would be over 65.33 times higher than the National Monument in
Jakarta. If laid end to end, they would stretch for nearly 10,000
kilometers, the approximate distance between Singapore and Rome,
or would run approximately 15 times the length of the Great Wall
of China. The 31.4 million cartridges equate to 78.5 million
pounds -- equivalent to the weight of about 500 Boeing 747 jet
planes.

After this launch, HP should actively visit offices to keep on
campaigning about this recycling program because the latter are
the biggest users of toner cartridges. If the echo of this
program is just limited to its launch, most users will not be
aware of it and tend to go the easy way with the toner
cartridges, by simply throwing them into the garbage can.

Please save the earth!

ADRIANUS HIYUNG TJUNG

Jakarta