And the survey says...

We recently polled our customers on a couple of questions and the results are below. Note only about 2.8% of all emails sent to customers resulted in a completed survey. I'm not surprised, we're all bombarded with unnecessary email and completing a survey isn't exactly a top priority. Still even if only a few people complete the survey, it's helpful to keep a tab on the pulse of our customers. We had 37 Brother P-Touch printers to give away for people that filled out the survey, and 450 people filled out the survey. Sorry we didn't have a printer for everyone, for those of you that didn't get one - better luck next time! On to the survey...

UPS vs. FedEx - We've just switched to FedEx from UPS and while half of our customers seem indifferent between the two services, those that did have a preference prefered FedEx. I guess we made the right move.

Recycling with "the box" - this one surprised me. To date, we've had very little participation with recycling with the box. We've tried fliers with each "box", but not much success. We recycle so many common items, but most people hopefully are recycling locally. Yet 61% plan to recycle with the box. Hopefully the survey also worked as a reminder that we offer this service and will recycle more and more with the box. Check out our box recycle flier and see all that can be recycled with "the box".

Buying from environmentally conscious green companies - The survey we split 50/50 between those that prefer to buy green and those that buy based upon superior product and service. Luckily with Advantage, you don't have to compromise. We are green and we provide the best products and service!

That's it for our survey. When we email our customers we really try to make sure we have something of value or an offer of value, because we know you are inundated with unwanted email. Thanks for being one of our valued customers!

The most toxic place on earth

Last night, 60 Minutes had a great report on e-recycling and the environmental impact e-recycling is having. E-recycling is the recycling of electronic items such as televisions, computers, monitors, laser printers and yes toner cartridges. One statistic that blew my mind was that each day we throw out 130,000 computers just in the United States. 

Click here for the 60 Minutes Video

60 Minutes then goes on to follow the waste from an e-waste recycling event in Denver to a local e-waste recycling that recycled the materials "in-house". As it turns out 60 Minutes tracked one container of CRT's all the way to Hong Kong where it ended up in the village of Guiyu.  Where literally acres of monitors are piled up waiting to be recycled. CRTs are loaded with nasty stuff like lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, polyvinyl chlorides, etc which are know to have numerous toxicological effects from brain damage to kidney disease and cancer. The conditions depicted were horrendous. Much of the plastic was just being burned. The water in the area is so polluted, they have to import drinking water. According to a recent study seven out ten kids have too much lead in their blood.  They are using 16 century technology to recycle 20th century electronic goods. Not pretty!

Importing these items into Hong Kong is technically "illegal" but it's obvious this is big business and officials across the board are looking the other way. I hate seeing this because I realize that most people are trying to do the right think by taking their e-waste to these recycling events. The problem is these countries have very cheap labor and no regard to the health of the people who are actually doing the work. A couple of years ago 60 Minutes had a similar story about where ships go once they reach the end of their useful life. They ended up in India and the conditions were probably worse and definitely more dangerous. 

I think when companies manufacture a product they should also provide a method to recycle the product. This will no doubt add to the cost, but it would theoretically insure the product is recycled properly in a healthy environment. I say theoretically because in our business we've see evidence of toner cartridges going overseas to be "recycled" in horrific conditions as well.

I wouldn't let this get you down on recycling. But I would ask and insist that your e-waste is recycled responsibly. 

So you may be wondering what does Advantage Laser Products do with it's toner cartridges? We recycle our toner cartridges here in Atlanta, Georgia where our workers have benefits like health insurance, 401K and work in an air conditioned environment with a great dust collection system. We do get a number of cartridges that we do not recycle. Those cartridges we sell to brokers who then sell them on the empties market. I don't believe these cartridge make it to one of these Chinese hell holes, because these cartridges have value and will be sold to another remanufacturer that can use the cartridge. There is a third category of cartridge, the cartridge that has already been remanufactured and has no value. These cartridges we return to the original equipment manufacturer, in this case that is HP or Lexmark. Although some OEM's may be sending their cartridges to illegal recycling facilities overseas, I hope and believe HP is a reputable company and is doing the right thing.

Keep recycling and do the right thing!