Other Waste Reduction Tips

Pharmaceuticals, Cork,  Toner Cartridges & Printer Ribbons

What can you do with your old medicines, and the bottles or packaging they come in? These materials cannot be recycled or reused, but they can be collected and destroyed safely. Much of the unwanted medicine in our houses is disposed of carelessly, such by pouring them down the sink, the toilet, the drain or simply dumped with garbage. These methods of getting rid of unwanted drugs create environmental damage through land and water contamination.

The Overseas Pharmaceuticals Aid for Life (OPAL) return unwanted medicines project provides a free, convenient, safe and environmentally friendly way of collection and destruction. 98% of community pharmacies across Australia act as collection points. The unwanted medicines are then brought to a waste specialist for destruction by high temperature incineration, with minimal environmental impact. This is less polluting than burying the potentially hazardous material at landfill.

What can I do with corks, after I recycle or return my wine bottles?

Cork comes from the bark of the Cork Oak trees, which are grown on plantations in Spain and Portugal. Portugal produces about 50% of the world's output. The cork grows slowly at the rate of about 1.5mm per year, and continues to grow until it reaches a thickness of 60mm. When the circumference of the tree reaches 800mm, which takes approximately 30 years, cork is then harvested by stripping it off the outside layer of the tree. This does not harm the tree. It will be another 9 years or so before the next stripping can be done. Recycling cork extends the usefulness of this material. It also reduces the enormous strain placed on the cork plantations and saves money by reducing the import from overseas.

Each year over 16.5 million corks or 550 tonnes are imported into Australia (Girl Guides), with the wine industry a major consumer. The unique properties and qualities of natural cork, which are impossible to duplicate synthetically, make it ideal for many purposes. It is low in weight, non-toxic, chemically resistant, has excellent thermal and electrical insulation, high surface friction and good compressibility.

Guides Australia recycles wine and champagne corks nationally. The recycling initiative began in Victoria in 1990, and since then Guides Australia has to June 1999 collected 75 million corks. The corks are returned to ACL Comcork in Oakleigh Victoria for recycling, the only company in the world to do so.

Recycling cork is simple. The corks are granulated into small particles of up to 3mm in size and then bonded with glue or rubber and remade into many products such as industrial safety mats and the inside of cricket and hockey balls. When collecting cork for recycling on behalf of Guides Australia, make sure that there is no contamination from plastic tops, steel caps, wires and other materials, as these will interfere with the recycling process. Many individuals, restaurants, hotels, wineries, clubs, liquor outlets and community organisations such as Rotary, Lions and Apex are supporters of the scheme.

What can I do with used toner cartridges & printer ribbons?

Computer toner cartridges and ribbons are used in all areas of industry and organisations of various sizes, such as office and home printers, supermarket check-outs and bank printers including ATMs. This market is worth billions of dollars, but 90% of the used ribbons are disposed into landfills, equating to hundreds of thousands of tonnes of ribbon toxins every year (Suncast). Reusing and recycling the empty cartridges and ribbons can diminish toxic waste, and also save the resources used to manufacture them.

Fabric ribbons from the original equipment manufacturers are suitable for recycling. Generic ribbons cannot be recycled as often, due to the lower quality. There are well over 23,000 printer models that require fabric ribbons on the market and 98% of them can be recycled. The number of times a ribbon can be recycled varies depending on the type, and many have been recycled up to 10 times.

Toner cartridges can also be reused by refilling, up to five times. Greenworld sells remanufactured laser print cartridges and printer cassettes reloaded with high density ribbon.

References

Girl Guides, www.guidesaus.org.au

OPAL Return Unwanted Medicines, undated, Return Unwanted Medicines, Information brochure.

Planet Ark, www.planetark.org

Recycle 2000, Fact Sheets.

Suncast, www.suncast.com.au/page15.html