July’s Featured Charity

Our featured charity for July is UNICEF’s Syria Children’s Appeal.

Over 1.6 million people have fled the horrific violence in Syria, half of them children and everyday thousands more terrified boys and girls pour over the border to join them. These children have experienced fear and abuse that no child should have to go through. It’s wrong that even one child should suffer like this.

UNICEF is working around the clock to provide children with clean water, food, medical care and warm clothing but their resources are at a breaking point and they need extra funding to continue their essential work with families affected. Please donate today and help them reach every child that needs them.

For more information please visit http://www.unicef.org.uk/landing-pages/donate-syria/

For the next year, funds raised for this appeal, UNICEF will support children affected by the Syrian crisis. After this point your donation will go where UNICEF feel the need is greatest.

For more information about how you can donate please feel free to get in touch:

http://www.officegreen.co.uk/contact.aspx

Recycling of Plastics

There are many advantages to recycling plastics, and these include:

1) Conservation of non-renewable fossil fuel

2) Plastic production uses 8% of the world's oil production, 4% as feedstock and 4% during manufacture.

3) Reduced consumption of energy.

4) Reduced amounts of solid waste going to landfill.

5) Reduced emissions of carbon-dioxide (CO2), nitrogen-oxide (NO) and sulphur-dioxide (SO2).

The world’s yearly consumption of plastic materials has risen from approximately 5 million tonnes in the 1950’s to approximately 100 million tonnes at present.

One tonne of plastics is equal to 20,000 two litre drinks bottles or 120,000 carrier bags.

The amount of plastic waste generated yearly in the UK is calculated roughly to be nearly 5 million tonnes.

Currently the UK recycles 24% of plastic while a European country, i.e Germany recycles 44% of their plastic.

Plastic equates to 9% of average household waste.

1.8 tonnes of oil are saved for every tonne of recycled polythene produced.

For more information please feel free to contact us at:

http://www.officegreen.co.uk/

WEEE Recyclers

The majority of specialist IT WEEE recyclers benefit from our free recycling service. For nearly all of our WEEE recycler partner’s cases this also creates a revenue stream.

Cartridges and fuser units are removed from scrap printers and places in cages or pallet boxes unsorted whilst making sure toner bottles and ribbons are not included.

Office Green will then collect these unsorted pallets once a minimum of 1.9 metres high, and report with a full audit trail of how many points listed or non-listed toners, inkjets and mobile phones if included have been returned.

Unused Cartridges

Any unused/new cartridges also received from customer sites can also be included or if large quantities are available a bespoke bid can be offered.

Legislation

We provide Waste Transfer Notes for each collection and Waste Carrier Licences of either ourselves or our contracted courier or haulier.

Office Green - minimising the cost and impact of waste

For more information please feel free to visit our website at:

http://www.officegreen.co.uk/

Data security and recycling mobile phones

When we process used mobile phones for recycling, the protection of the environment and privacy of any data contained on them is central to our approach.

Most of the handsets will save personal data to either the SIM card or removable memory card.

As a result we advise all users to remove these cards before sending them into us for recycling. Any cards that are received are physically broken to avoid any data from being accessed before being sent for raw material recycling.

We perform ‘factory resets’ on working handsets which deletes any personal data that may have been left for them.

Office Green – Technology & the Environment in Harmony

For more information please feel free to contact us at:

http://www.officegreen.co.uk/

June’s Featured Charity

Our featured charity for the month of June is Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life.

Race for Life is Cancer Research UK’s flagship event, with more than 230 events taking place across the UK.

Since Race for Life began in 1994, an incredible six million women have come together and raised more than £493 million for Cancer Research UK’s life saving work, making it the UK’s largest women-only fundraising event.

By ticking the box on your points claim form this month you can help them raise even more money.

About Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK is leading the world in finding new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer.

Their groundbreaking work has saved millions of lives in the UK and across the world and over the next decade they aim to save many more but they can’t do it without you.

For more information about Race for Life please visit their website at:

http://raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/index.html

For more information about how to donate with Office Green please visit our website for further information:

http://www.officegreen.co.uk/

Research into the potential of re-using bulky household waste

The reason for this research was to understand the structure of bulky waste in terms of item type and re-usability, in order to identify the opportunities for the re-use of bulky items across the UK.

National predictions obtained from WasteDataFlow (WDF) reveals that across the UK during 2010/11, some 1,590,000 tonnes of bulky waste was collected at the kerbside or taken to HWRCs. Around twice as much is taken to HWRCs (1,050,000 tonnes) than is collected at the kerbside (540,000 tonnes).

Using this data and estimating the sample findings across all UK kerbside and HWRC bulky waste collections shows that of all bulky waste in the UK, including both kerbside collected and HWRC bulky items), approximately 42% consists of furniture, 19% textiles and 19% WEEE. These estimates are equal to 670,000 tonnes of furniture and 310,000 tonnes each of textiles and WEEE thrown away by householders in the UK annually.

There is a perception held that items, when they reach the HWRC, or are collected at kerbside are no longer fit for re-use, however, this report identifies down to specific product level the substantial amount of products that are potentially reusable. It is hoped that this information can assist in informing re-use organisations, local authorities, and waste management companies of the potential reuse of items that are currently being recycled or disposed of.

For more information please feel free to contact us at:

http://www.officegreen.co.uk/

Information about mixed plastics packaging

The term mixed plastics covers all types of non-bottle plastic packaging from households. It includes rigid and flexible plastic packaging items of assorted polymer types and colours and does not include plastic bottles and non-packaging items.

Annually in the UK over 1 million tonnes of mixed plastics packaging from households are thrown away and the push to develop sustainable waste management options for mixed plastics packaging is picking up momentum.

The move towards bigger recycling levels is being encouraged by a number of factors including the increasing cost of waste disposal alongside rising public demand for more efficient and environmentally friendly ways of shifting waste from landfill.

A further subdivide of mixed plastics are rigid plastics (pots, tubs, trays) and films or flexible plastics.

In 2011/12 in the UK, 45% of local authorities provided kerbside collections of non-bottle rigid plastics (pots, tubs, trays) and 13% collected films (plastic) at the kerbside (in addition to those collecting carrier bags only).

For more information please feel free to contact us at:

http://www.officegreen.co.uk/