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| Re-use, reduce and recycle - office waste solutions Issue 28 - Mar 07 With landfill space rapidly pilling up and a new era of environmental awareness beckoning, facility managers are finding that they are playing an increasingly important role in corporate social responsibility strategy. Waste is a problem that affects all members of society and particularly so in Hong Kong. The increasing accumulation of all types of waste has resulted in Hong Kong running out of landfill space much sooner than anticipated. According to the HK Environmental Protection Department (EPD), the remaining landfill space will only last six to ten years if waste levels continue to rise at the current rate. Identifying sustainable solutions is a must, otherwise, within the next decade, Hong Kong could face the crisis of having nowhere to deposit the waste it produces. All of society has a role to play in reducing waste, and those who manage offices and are subsequently responsible for disposal of office waste are no exception. In 2005, commercial waste in Hong Kong totalled 690,000 tonnes, with 14 percent of all waste produced in the territory. Most offices can reduce the waste they generate or establish better uses for the waste they produce. According to Ellen Chan Ying-Lung of the EPD, “waste reduction should be done just like a habit, like brushing your teeth or washing your hands”. It is worth noting that industries that make up the built environment are responsible for more than their fair share of waste producers with construction waste accounting for a whopping 37 percent of all waste produced. However, some companies, both producers and users of potential waste, have devised ways to minimise their potential impact.  Wilkhahn, an office furnishings manufacturer, has come up with several ways in which a company can reduce the amount of waste it produces, one of which being to introduce a scheme where it will buy back unwanted or used furniture. However, it will only become involved in a buy back once it can confirm the furniture’s origin. If the product in question is from a Wilkhahn collection or source, it will buy it back because it would be familiar with the raw materials that were used in the product. If the furniture however, comes from a source other than theirs, it will only buy back if it knows the material composition of that product. This is a cost saving and eco-friendly solution that not only benefits companies who are looking to dispose of unwanted furniture but also the environment, as all materials will be re-used. According to Kamlesh Malkani, Regional Manager, Wilkhahn, N.E Asia and India“all Wilkhahn furniture is extremely recyclable and all their tables and chairs have environmental stamps.” Malkani further states that another major aspect of his company’s environmental solutions is to create simple products that are never over-engineered which mirrors Wilkhahn’s aim to “design durable products, to increase their value in use and to reduce waste”. For example, by taking a chair and removing a few screws, you can install a new seat or arm-rest and all you need is a power-drill. All the products were created with disassembly in mind and can be easily refurbished, repaired and re-used even after a long period of time. Wilkhahn offers a full service which includes an inhouse training program which educates the members of staff to re-furbish their furniture, however, the materials must be bought from Wilkhahn, “An organisation that has ten chairs and fi ve tables will probably not use this service; however, a client that has fi ve hundred chairs and a hundred tables would be highly interested in that”, says Malkani. going “green” More companies are becoming “greener” these days particularly in the Asia-Pacifi c region, the trend being most strong in Australia, where the government is raising the bar in environmental standards and has introduced the Green Star programme. This voluntary Wilkhahn products are designed for disassembly, so individual parts can be replaced.  Courtesy of Wilkhahn Asia Pacific rating system for buildings, similar to Greenmark in Singapore or HKBEAM in Hong Kong, involves a holistic team approach, where client, developer, project manager, designer/architect, builder and every supplier and trade associated with the finished product works on delivering a greener product. The scheme has many different rating methods such as the Offi ce Interiors Rating Tool, which aims to promote integrated thinking within the design and construction industry, raise ecological awareness within the industry and reduce environmental impact. Toby Read, Environmental Portfolio Manager, Wilkhahn, has experience with the scheme,“Green Star has forced Wilkhahn to re-communicate its environmental performance in a locally appropriate context. One of the eight environmental categories assessed under the Offi ce Interior Rating Tool is that materials contained within the fi t-out [are] assessed.”  According to Read, all Wilkhahn products meet these criteria. However, Wilkhahn has yet to have a client to exercise the option to dissemble products for recycling and this is due to cost and proportional energy outlay.“A far more popular and cost effective option for our clients is to refurbish existing Wilkhahn products” says Read. He believes that due to the modular nature of their products, and local manufacture (in Australia only), Wilkhahn clients are presented with enough fl exibility when wanting to extend the lifespan of their furniture. For example, for Challenger, Wilkhahn refurbished and re-upholstered 350 Modus chairs that were originally supplied in 2001. Read says this was a great opportunity for challenger to spend approximately 60 percent less than buying a new product. As this
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According to Ellen Chan Ying- Lung of the EPD, “waste reduction should be done just like a habit, like brushing your teeth or washing your hands”.
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| caused no “disruption to the project relocation time line” it could also be an option for companies who are aware that long lead times for furniture might affect scheduling. Wilkhahn has yet to have a client to exercise the option to dissemble products for recycling and this is due to cost and proportional energy outlay.  raising awareness Positive steps towards raising environmental awareness are also taken in Hong Kong even though the government has frequently been criticised for not implementing more stringent waste management legislation. For example, the levy on waste disposal has been delayed for ten years and will not be implemented until 2009 - though obviously companies who prepare themselves with environmentally friendly initiatives prior to that date will be better positioned to minimise its impact to the bottom line when the time comes. According to Philip Stride, Director, Sustainable Solutions Ltd, a company that creates recycling bins for paper, plastic and aluminium cans, pretty much any other country is doing better than Hong Kong in terms of waste management. He gives Taiwan as a good example of a location where waste disposal has been taken more seriously. Companies and individuals are levied on the waste they produce and in one programme at a housing estate households were required to buy special bags for waste disposal.  In Hong Kong, voluntary schemes have been preferred. Many companies may not know that in Hong Kong, the EPD has introduced the WasteWi$e scheme, a program to help companies protect the environment by offering free advice on ways to reduce and manage the waste they produce. The EPD sees the scheme as an opportunity for businesses to benchmark their commitment towards environmental protection through waste reduction”. By joining and fulfilling Scheme requirements, WasteWi$e members can enjoy many benefits including the use of the “prestigious WasteWi$e Logo”. Other benefits to joining the Scheme include: cost savings, free advice on waste reduction practices, and publicity of waste reduction achievements. However, says Stride “I could sign up tomorrow and they wouldn’t be coming round to see how much paper I was saving.” electrical and electronic waste Another scheme which addresses the problems created by electrical and electronic waste is Hong Kong’s Recovery Programme for Waste Computers and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. The programme targets the public but also businesses. Companies are encouraged to recycle Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and the process is as easy as arranging a collection date with the programme’s organisers or supporting organisations. For more information about the programme please visit: http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/news_events/events/ weee2007_archive. The common perception is that waste reduction is synonymous with recycling, but the area is much more complex than that - avoiding the generation of waste in the first place and minimising waste should also be part of a waste reduction strategy. That said, minimising electronic waste may be a difficult task. Stephen Fry, Executive Director, PTS Consulting says that “Unlike furniture, there is no drive for IT reuse.” However, banks or major organisations may have in place programmes whereby they will destroy information stored in the memory of the computer equipment and once the computer is rebuilt it is given to schools or hospitals. Office IT infrastructure such as cabling, desktops, telecoms and networks equipment causes more WEEE problems in offices. Fry says that while cabling is not such a problem, as copper is recyclable, phone systems may be the hardest to deal with, because they usually get replaced every 10 to 15 years by which time, they have become outdated and nobody wants them. Keyboards and monitors tend to be binned as well. In addition, network equipment is often upgraded as companies buy the hardware and keep updating the software. IT refurbishing may seem like a good idea from a cost and waste minimisation perspective, but Fry believes that IT products have become so commoditised that it is easier to buy brand new machinery then replacing its parts. “IT manufacturers should follow the examples of car manufacturers” says Fry, further adding that methods for dealing with the problem should be tackled at design change as “recycling is only curing the symptoms but not solving the problem.” Jean-Claude Vanderstraeten, APJ Environment Director, Hewlett Packard, is of a different opinion, saying that “first of all we must realise that what comes back to us are probably products from the commercial sector which are five years old or more; so the products which are coming back to be disposed of are products that were designed five years ago. The question doesn’t really apply on how well we are designing now and that doesn’t help our recycling today, we’re still recycling products for which design consideration might not have taken into account the fact that we need to take care of the end of life aspect of the products.” solving the end-of-use dilemma The core of the “end of use” dilemma lies in the fact that streams of new computers, servers, monitors and other devices are pouring out of factories but the same amount of old equipment is piling up in mountains of WEEE. In Hong Kong voluntary schemes have been preferred. Many companies may not know that in Hong Kong, the EPD has the WasteWi$e Scheme, a program to help companies protect the environment by offering free advice on ways to reduce and manage the waste they produce. Hewlett Packard has tried, over the years, to find viable solutions to this dilemma. Besides three countries such as Japan, Taiwan and Korea, where return of electronic products is legislated, HP offers a voluntary take back programme to their commercial business customers. It is a programme where any HP business customer can connect into the HP website and fill in a collection request form which automatically gets into the HP system and triggers an instruction for a local logistics company to pick up the products within five days. There are some conditions says Vanderstraeten “we require a minimum volume of one cubic metre and we don’t accept broken monitors, but the service is free of charge to the commercial businesses that are located around metropolitan areas.” Customers wanting to become greener are presented with HP leasing services. That way, customers can lease the product (computer, printer, etc.) and at the end of the lease the product automatically returns to HP. Other solutions are also offered to customers, such as the option to recycle HP inkjet or LaserJet cartridges and rechargeable batteries. As a global company, HP claims a commitment to designing along environmental guidelines. To meet the objectives of its Environmental, Heath and Safety Policy, HP established a Design for Environment program in 1992 which takes into account energy efficiency, materials innovation in order to reduce the amount of materials used in their products and develop materials that have less environmental impact and more value at end-of-life. They also aim to design for recyclability by creating equipment that is easier to upgrade and/or recycle.  Vanderstraeten says that to meet these criteria, HP tries to minimise the amount of material, to avoid the use of certain substances in its products, reduce the number of screws and bolts and minimise the number of different plastics that may be hazardous to the environment. Yet again, “these are the design criteria which will probably help us five years from now; these are the products we put on the market today that will eventually come back to us,” says Vanderstraeten. It is not just the responsibility of the producers of office equipment we should bear in mind but we should also consider the end-user responsibility to find solutions or make use of the already available solutions to reduce, minimise and recycle office waste. green is trendy “These days it is common that customers would like the supplier to help dispose of the used equipment when they purchase a new one” says Raymond Ho, Director, Environmental Management, HP North Asia. This is borne out by the numbers - in 2005 HP took back 1,500 tonnes of waste compared to 3,000 tonnes in 2006. While some of its customers may not be aware of the existing solutions for dealing with their office waste, there it is an increasing trend of customers who want to know more about ways to deal with their waste. It is not just the responsibility of the producers of office equipment we should bear in mind, but we should also consider the end-user responsibility to find solutions or make use of the already available solutions to reduce, minimise and recycle office waste. RFP
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The scheme has many different rating methods such as the Offi ce Interiors Rating tool, which is supposed to promote integrated thinking within the design and construction industry, raise ecological awareness within the industry and reduce environmental impact.2 |
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Key title: RFP magazine
Abbreviated key title: RFP mag.
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