'RANK' XEROX
I work in a small-/medium-sized office in the City (of London). There are 60 full-time employees. One of my ‘responsibilities’ here is to help the IT manager with small/easy desktop support-type problems. This also means looking after four large Xerox photocopiers/printers. They seem to require a lot of attention and whenever anything goes wrong I’m the first port of call. (There is a point to all this – bear with it!). Amongst other things, I replace and order toner/ink/etc. It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it…
Approximately every six–eight weeks a new toner drum is required for three of the four machines. One toner drum is well over a foot long and 10cm wide. It’s made of very solid plastic – the kind you couldn’t possibly pierce with a blade regardless how sharp. In addition, each machine has a ‘waste toner bottle’ which is used to catch used toner (black powder) emanating from these toner drums. These bottles are also made from extremely hard, thick plastic. Toner drums and toner bottles are known as ‘consumables’ because they are consumed by the machines and need to be replenished.
Every time I return from a machine to my desk clutching a spent piece of monstrous, indestructible plastic, I am gripped with anxiety about what to do with it next. I suppose this is a good example of ‘Dumpster Clocking’ (see Generation X post a couple of months ago). For the second time since I’ve been in this job, I phone Xerox. I wish I could post a digital photo of these objects because they need to be seen to be believed. Xerox, I figure, are a huge, multinational company and they must have a recycling policy. They are, like, XEROX! after all. We’re not talking about ‘North Circular Office Suppliers’. I think the word has even made it into the dictionary (verb: to reproduce documents).
Anyway, I rang them to see what their official line is on how to dispose of these items. This is a rough approximation of the conversation.
Hi, how do I recycle Xerox products?
Go to our website, download a form, fill it out and stick it on a cardboard box and then post it back to us at the Post Office. We will take care of it.
Great – I’ll do that. Presume toner drums and waste toner bottles can be dealt with in this way?
Er, no.
Why not?
It’s too expensive.
Too expensive?
Yes
What, ‘too expensive’ as in ‘not profitable’? How about I let the empties stack up for a couple of months and give these to the same courier that brings the replacements. Then they’ll be bought in and taken away in the same journey?
We only recycle parts, and toner/waste toner is classed as a consumable, not a part.
So what should I do then – chuck it in the rubbish?
I’m not sure what our policy is. I will give you the number of our Health and Safety department.
Hmm, this doesn’t sound like a Health and Safety issue.
(Clueless). I don’t know how to dispose of toner drums. I will give you that number now.
Oh! Well, all right then. Bye.
Bye.
I phone up Elaine Grange at Xerox. She is utterly unhelpful but sympathetic at least. I tell her I am appalled at the lack of any coherent information on the ethical disposal of these products. She makes sympathetic remarks and agrees that it’s poor. I comment that this is a small office in a big city but this company alone, over the course of a year, produces boxes of waste that will never break down in an environmentally friendly or even in an environmentally unfriendly way. Multiply this for the entire city and it’s a bleak picture. Put simply, these things will never break down. Elaine offers to send me an email so I give her my address. She assures me that she will ‘investigate’ and be in touch. When the email arrives I am amazed to find that she is passing the buck even further – maybe she figures that this way it will be off her hands and also off Xerox’s hands. The email – unedited and uncut – is below. Her sign-off is longer than her message and she has barely written in sentences.
http://www.office.xerox.com/perl-bin/product.pl?mode=recycling
This is the link for Green World Alliance - an easy guide to returning free of charge various cru's drums etc. The Asset Returns manager is Robert Clarke and he can be contacted on 01895 845403. Regards, Elaine Grange
----------------------------------------------------------------
Customer Support Administrator
Xerox Environment Health and Safety
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 1HE
Telephone: 01707 353434 Fax 01707 353914
This time I didn’t follow the link or make a further phonecall. I’ve already made two calls (one to a Xerox office and another to Xerox’s Health and Safety department). Also, this isn’t the first time I’ve been through this Trying-To-Recycle-The-Toner charade. I had a stab at it before Christmas. Companies such as Green World Alliance will not collect toner except in bulk quantities. And anyway, I resent that I am being passed around the houses. Recycling should be made easy, not a matter of jumping through hoops. As I have said, Xerox is a giant company. They are delighted to send couriers out to premises when the item is something they can charge us for. But they will not let their couriers come within a mile when the same items need collecting. It’s a disgrace. Of course, it’s convenient for them to make money by supplying a good or service. But when the same issue becomes a bit less convenient they wash their hands of it. I don’t even expect Xerox to lay on a collection service. It wouldn’t be difficult to put the items in a box and return them at the post office using a returns service. I’d be happy to do this every few months. But they will not even take delivery of the plastic, which is so toughened and thick you could use it as a weapon and knock someone out with it.
So what am I to do? I am, basically, a receptionist here…. Corporations should take on some responsibility for this, it shouldn’t be for the ‘little people’ (the likes of me) to fret about. The sad end to this story is that I threw the plastic in the bin. No doubt it will now languish in a landfill site for a thousand years.
I work in a small-/medium-sized office in the City (of London). There are 60 full-time employees. One of my ‘responsibilities’ here is to help the IT manager with small/easy desktop support-type problems. This also means looking after four large Xerox photocopiers/printers. They seem to require a lot of attention and whenever anything goes wrong I’m the first port of call. (There is a point to all this – bear with it!). Amongst other things, I replace and order toner/ink/etc. It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it…
Approximately every six–eight weeks a new toner drum is required for three of the four machines. One toner drum is well over a foot long and 10cm wide. It’s made of very solid plastic – the kind you couldn’t possibly pierce with a blade regardless how sharp. In addition, each machine has a ‘waste toner bottle’ which is used to catch used toner (black powder) emanating from these toner drums. These bottles are also made from extremely hard, thick plastic. Toner drums and toner bottles are known as ‘consumables’ because they are consumed by the machines and need to be replenished.
Every time I return from a machine to my desk clutching a spent piece of monstrous, indestructible plastic, I am gripped with anxiety about what to do with it next. I suppose this is a good example of ‘Dumpster Clocking’ (see Generation X post a couple of months ago). For the second time since I’ve been in this job, I phone Xerox. I wish I could post a digital photo of these objects because they need to be seen to be believed. Xerox, I figure, are a huge, multinational company and they must have a recycling policy. They are, like, XEROX! after all. We’re not talking about ‘North Circular Office Suppliers’. I think the word has even made it into the dictionary (verb: to reproduce documents).
Anyway, I rang them to see what their official line is on how to dispose of these items. This is a rough approximation of the conversation.
Hi, how do I recycle Xerox products?
Go to our website, download a form, fill it out and stick it on a cardboard box and then post it back to us at the Post Office. We will take care of it.
Great – I’ll do that. Presume toner drums and waste toner bottles can be dealt with in this way?
Er, no.
Why not?
It’s too expensive.
Too expensive?
Yes
What, ‘too expensive’ as in ‘not profitable’? How about I let the empties stack up for a couple of months and give these to the same courier that brings the replacements. Then they’ll be bought in and taken away in the same journey?
We only recycle parts, and toner/waste toner is classed as a consumable, not a part.
So what should I do then – chuck it in the rubbish?
I’m not sure what our policy is. I will give you the number of our Health and Safety department.
Hmm, this doesn’t sound like a Health and Safety issue.
(Clueless). I don’t know how to dispose of toner drums. I will give you that number now.
Oh! Well, all right then. Bye.
Bye.
I phone up Elaine Grange at Xerox. She is utterly unhelpful but sympathetic at least. I tell her I am appalled at the lack of any coherent information on the ethical disposal of these products. She makes sympathetic remarks and agrees that it’s poor. I comment that this is a small office in a big city but this company alone, over the course of a year, produces boxes of waste that will never break down in an environmentally friendly or even in an environmentally unfriendly way. Multiply this for the entire city and it’s a bleak picture. Put simply, these things will never break down. Elaine offers to send me an email so I give her my address. She assures me that she will ‘investigate’ and be in touch. When the email arrives I am amazed to find that she is passing the buck even further – maybe she figures that this way it will be off her hands and also off Xerox’s hands. The email – unedited and uncut – is below. Her sign-off is longer than her message and she has barely written in sentences.
http://www.office.xerox.com/perl-bin/product.pl?mode=recycling
This is the link for Green World Alliance - an easy guide to returning free of charge various cru's drums etc. The Asset Returns manager is Robert Clarke and he can be contacted on 01895 845403. Regards, Elaine Grange
----------------------------------------------------------------
Customer Support Administrator
Xerox Environment Health and Safety
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 1HE
Telephone: 01707 353434 Fax 01707 353914
This time I didn’t follow the link or make a further phonecall. I’ve already made two calls (one to a Xerox office and another to Xerox’s Health and Safety department). Also, this isn’t the first time I’ve been through this Trying-To-Recycle-The-Toner charade. I had a stab at it before Christmas. Companies such as Green World Alliance will not collect toner except in bulk quantities. And anyway, I resent that I am being passed around the houses. Recycling should be made easy, not a matter of jumping through hoops. As I have said, Xerox is a giant company. They are delighted to send couriers out to premises when the item is something they can charge us for. But they will not let their couriers come within a mile when the same items need collecting. It’s a disgrace. Of course, it’s convenient for them to make money by supplying a good or service. But when the same issue becomes a bit less convenient they wash their hands of it. I don’t even expect Xerox to lay on a collection service. It wouldn’t be difficult to put the items in a box and return them at the post office using a returns service. I’d be happy to do this every few months. But they will not even take delivery of the plastic, which is so toughened and thick you could use it as a weapon and knock someone out with it.
So what am I to do? I am, basically, a receptionist here…. Corporations should take on some responsibility for this, it shouldn’t be for the ‘little people’ (the likes of me) to fret about. The sad end to this story is that I threw the plastic in the bin. No doubt it will now languish in a landfill site for a thousand years.
