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