Oregon DEQ: Land Quality - Solid Waste - Commercial Waste Reduction Clearinghouse - Success Stories

Forms

Business: Bend Memorial Clinic (Bend)

Number of Employees: 375

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Identified examples of unnecessary packaging of medical products and sent letters to vendors requesting more resource efficient packaging.

A clinic-wide paper waste prevention program reduced per-employee use of paper by 12% in one year. Employees were asked to make double-sided copies, reuse paper that had already been used on one side, and reprogram printers and fax machines to eliminate printing of unneeded fax transmission reports and blank pages between print jobs. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $1,550/year (paper costs only; printing and labor savings not included). RESOURCE SAVINGS: 65 cases (3,250 pounds) of paper/year.

Changed from printing timesheets on large greenbar paper to a smaller (8½ x 11") paper. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 300 pounds of paper/year.

Case Study

None

Business: Columbia Gorge Veterinary Clinic (Hood River)

Number of Employees: unknown

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Installed a ventilation system that reduces the need for air conditioning by using fresh outside air during morning and evening hours. This reduced electricity use by 25-30% and had a two-year payback.

Upgraded lighting and lighting controls and insulated the hot water heater, reducing electricity use another 15-20%. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $225/year.

Installed faucet aerators and a toilet tank displacement to reduce water use.

Reconfigured margins and simplified a medical form to fit onto one page of paper.

Reuses large envelopes and file folders.

Case Study

Call Hood River Green Smart, 541-386-2000.

Business: Davis Wright Tremaine LLP (Portland)

Number of Employees: 165

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Reduced use of copy and printer paper by 10% by:

Using laser-printed stationery. This eliminates the need to print and stock new letterhead each time an office is added.

Using a fax transmission "macro" that prints a small box with the outgoing fax number and number of pages on the first page of the document, in place of cover pages.

Eliminating the unused second page of two-part "copy request" and "scan request" forms. Forms are now printed in-house since carbonless paper is no longer needed.

Eliminating blank pages between print jobs by reprogramming computers.

Office policy requires that all internal documents are copied on both sides of the paper.

FINANCIAL SAVINGS: more than $6,000/year (including some but not all of the resulting labor savings). RESOURCE SAVINGS: more than 100 cases of paper (5,000 pounds)/year.

Remanufactured toner cartridges and used in laser printers and fax machines. The firm recommends that other companies interview vendors to determine what services are provided, and ask for customer references. Remanufactured cartridges occasionally require early replacement, but a good service company will replace them at no cost. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $12,000/year.

Approximately 60% of the firm’s paper purchases contain some recycled content.

Every employee has a desk-side box for recycling office paper and office paper and newspaper containers are located on every floor.

Case Study

Case study exists, call Metro, 503-234-3000.

Business: Legacy Health Systems (Portland)

Number of Employees: unknown

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Replaced disposable foam mattresses with reusables. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $81,527/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 16,350 pounds/year.

Switched from buying juice in 32-oz glass container to 60-oz plastic container (containers are recycled; larger containers use less material). FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $125/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 2,500 pounds/year.

Eliminated rarely-used items from custom packs of surgical supplies. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: more than $30,000/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 11,000 pounds/year.

Consolidated duplicative admitting kits for maternity patients. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: more than $3,500/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 2,700 pounds/year.

Reduces photocopying by keeping originals in shared files. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: more than $128,000/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 2,100 pounds/year.

Customized the distribution of reports and newsletters; periodically checks distribution lists and only sends reports and newsletters to departments and individuals who request them. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: more than $10,000/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 4,100 pounds/year.

Consolidated seven different patient forms into a single flow sheet. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $158/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 300 pounds/year.

Eliminated unused third page of three-part carbonless form. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $199/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 60 pounds/year.

Recycles cardboard, office paper, glass bottles, metal cans, and several resins of plastics.

Case Study

Case study exists, call Metro, 503-234-3000.

Business: Melanie’s Flowers (Cannon Beach)

Number of Employees: 2

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Melanie’s Flowers is a flower and coffee shop.

Large packing boxes that flowers arrive in are saved and sent back with the flower supply company for reuse. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 190 pounds/year.

When coffee is served in disposable cups, staff used to automatically "double cup" all drinks. Staff switched to asking if a single or double cup was preferred. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: more than $800/year in cup costs. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 390 pounds/year.

Uses reusable, washable coffee filters. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $125/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 50 pounds/year.

Installed toilet "dummy" (sealed bags filled with a weight, such as rocks) in the tanks of all toilets. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $20/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 5,100 gallons/year.

Repaired leaking window.

Reduced size of coffee club cards.

Case Study

None

Business: Mentor Graphics Corporation (Wilsonville)

Number of Employees: 1,000

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Mentor Graphics Corporation creates electronic design automation software used by engineers and designers in high-technology industries.

Eliminated, consolidated, or computerized some printed forms. Between 1992 and 1993, the number of pre-printed forms dropped from 556,000 (134 different types of forms) to 399,000 (91 different types of forms). FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $55,000/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: more than 2,000 pounds/year.

"Save Our Supplies" Program to consolidate and redeploy reusable office supplies. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $45,900.

Double-sided copying. All copies at on-site copy center are made double-sided unless specifically requested. Posters above walk-up copiers remind employees to copy on both sides. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $15,500/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 32,500 pounds/year.

Guarantee return postage for undeliverable direct mail; delete names from mailing lists. Periodic telemarketing campaigns to "clean up" mailing lists; remove or change obsolete addresses. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $7,000/year.

Replacing printed documentation with electronic media (CD-ROM).

Recycles cardboard, office paper, magazines, newspapers, aluminum, and glass. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $13,700/year.

Case Study

Case study exists: Call Metro, 503-234-3000.

Business: Oregon Photo Supply (Oregon City)

Number of Employees: unknown

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Oregon Photo Supply’s Oregon City store replaced a three-part carbonless (NCR) sales form with a simple cash register receipt. That saves about 44,000 sheets of paper, not to mention storage and filing space. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $600 a year.

Case Study

None

Business: Rogue Wave Software (Corvallis)

Number of Employees: 175

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Rogue Wave Software develops, markets, and ships computer software products that support software libraries for computer programmers and math experts. The company has implemented several efficiencies in its product packaging:

Previously, each product (which might consist of several disks and manuals) was packed in a small corrugated cardboard box. Since many of Rogue Wave’s customers order more than one product at a time, these small boxes were then consolidated into one or more larger boxes. Under the new system, manuals and disks are shrink-wrapped together, eliminating the smaller boxes. This has reduced the weight of packaging sent to customers by an estimated 68% and significantly reduces staff time. FINANCIAL SAVINGS (packaging only): $21,000/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 26,200 pounds of packaging/year.

All manual sizes have been standardized, eliminating the guesswork which was previously involved in trying to find the most efficient way to place manuals in the shipping boxes.

A "box sizer" is used to adjust box height to fit the content, eliminating the need to stuff the tops of boxes with protective packaging.

The purchase agreement for each program is printed directly onto the envelope used to protect the disk, eliminating the need for a separate piece of paper.

Some boxes received from the company’s printer are reused to ship large orders of manuals.

Case Study

Case study exists.

Business: Sagewood School (Bend)

Number of Employees: 8

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Informed parents of how to pack a "waste wise" lunch for kids; switched from paper towels to cloth towels for staff; and started a mixed paper recycling bin. The school was able to reduce the size of their garbage can from 60 gallons to 33 gallons.

Reformatted reimbursement forms to use half as much paper.

Began double-siding the school newsletter.

Turned down hot water temperature from 130^o to 120^o Fahrenheit. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $23/year. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 460 kWh/year.

Case Study

None

Business: US Post Office (Cannon Beach)

Number of Employees: 3

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The District Office in Portland now consolidates multiple internal mailings into a single envelope. Previously, each document was sent in its own envelope. This change was implemented throughout the Portland District at the request of the Cannon Beach Postmaster.

Eliminated the printing of blank sheets by the laser printer at the start of each print job.

Changed to carbonless forms, where allowed. The United States Postal Service requires the use of carbon (for copies) in certain register books so local staff can’t change them; however, they do reuse the carbon slips.

A student volunteer makes scratch pads from paper pulled from the recycling bin.

Installed faucet aerators on sinks to reduce water and energy costs. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: $20/year.

Case Study

None

Business: Willamette Falls Immediate Care (Clackamas)

Number of Employees: unknown

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Changed a four-page NCR (carbonless) patient chart form to a two-page form. RESOURCE SAVINGS: 24,000 sheets of paper per year.

Case Study

None