HP Helps Printing Customers Reduce Environmental Impact

PALO ALTO, CA—April 29, 2014—HP today announced that more than 75 percent of its ink cartridges and 24 percent of HP LaserJet toner cartridges are now manufactured with “closed loop” recycled plastic.(1)

This milestone represents a 50 percent increase in the number of HP ink cartridges manufactured with recycled content in the last year, giving customers more options for purchasing cartridges made with recycled content.

As part of the company’s Living Progress strategy for driving human, economic and environmental progress, HP is identifying opportunities for action and innovation to create a better future. Through these innovations in plastics, HP is helping customers reduce their environmental impact and reduce the overall environmental impact of product use.

“Our customers want high-quality printed content for both business and personal documents—without breaking their budget or compromising their commitment to environmental responsibility,” said Stephen Nigro, senior vice president, Inkjet and Printing Solutions, HP. “From cartridges with recycled plastic to energy-efficient printing products and waste-reducing packaging design, we are offering customers solutions that make it easy for them to enjoy cost and resource savings in their everyday lives.”

HP’s industry-leading “closed loop” cartridge recycling process uses recycled plastic from returned HP cartridges as well as plastic from other sources, including recycled plastic bottles and plastic apparel hangers to create new Original HP ink cartridges.

Reusing engineered materials, HP has contributed to the “circular economy” by:

• Keeping 566 million returned HP cartridges out of landfills since 1991.
• Using 2.5 billion post-consumer plastic bottles to manufacture new HP ink cartridges since 2005.
• Incorporating 1.1 million pounds of recycled apparel hangers into the most recent expansion of the recycling process.(2)
• Manufacturing more than 2 billion Original HP ink and toner cartridges made with recycled content.(3)
• Delivering recycled plastic from HP’s “closed loop” recycling process with a 33 percent lower carbon footprint and 54 percent lower fossil fuel consumption in its production than new plastic.(4)

HP offers customers in 50 countries and territories free and convenient cartridge recycling through the HP Planet Partners program. Customers can return used cartridges through HP’s retail and reseller partners by dropping cartridges off at one of 9,000 drop-off locations around the world or find out how to return cartridges directly to HP by visiting www.hp.com/recycle. The site now offers region- and language-specific information and is optimized for mobile use, making it quicker and easier for customers to recycle used cartridges.

These advances join a portfolio of printing products and services that further enable customers to reduce their environmental impact:

• Consumers can achieve a 70 percent reduction in their carbon footprint related to ink purchase and disposal by participating in HP Instant Ink, an automated supplies replenishment program. (5)
• Business users can choose products from the HP Officejet Enterprise X series to achieve energy savings and use 50 to 90 percent less cartridge and packaging material than color laser printers.(6)
• Office users also can save energy and money by choosing HP LaserJet products that offer an average of 11 to 35 percent energy savings during printing through HP’s energy-efficient toner. (7) Additionally, features such as Auto-On/Auto-Off and PowerSave mode help customers achieve further energy savings while HP’s SureSupply program enables streamlined purchase of cartridges with recycled content.(1)

This progress is part of HP’s ongoing commitment to bring our people and technology together to solve society’s challenges, empowering our customers—from consumers and small businesses to enterprises—to make more responsible choices when printing.

About HP
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(1) Ink cartridges that include recycled plastic contain 50-70 percent recycled plastic; HP LaserJet toner cartridges that include recycled plastic contain 10-20 percent recycled plastic.
(2) Since introduction of hanger program in October 2013.
(3) As of Q1 FY14.
(4) Data and assumptions drawn from a 2014 life cycle assessment performed by Four Elements Consulting and commissioned by HP.
(5) Analysis includes the CO2 equivalent associated with customer trips to purchase ink cartridges at a retail store vs. delivering directly to a customer’s house, and it includes recycling empty ink cartridges vs. throwing them away. Data and assumptions drawn from a 2010 life cycle assessment performed by Four Elements Consulting and commissioned by HP. Details available at www.hp.com/go/RecycledPlasticsLCA.
(6) For Officejet Enterprise X series, performance compared with the majority of color laser MFPs ≤$3,000 USD based on market share as reported by IDC as of Q3 2013. Calculation compares weight of supplies and cartridge packaging needed for similar amount of pages based on ISO yield and continuous printing.
(7) Energy savings calculation is based on HP’s black-and-white and color SF LaserJet printers comparing the energy-efficient toner in the most recent printer within a class to its legacy printer with conventional toner. The stated energy consumption, during printing, is divided by the printer’s pages per minute. Actual savings may vary.

Source: HP.