May 3, 2004—UK relocation company Harrow Green has launched a new environmental service that helps businesses play their part in sustainable waste management.
Facilities managers faced with the disposal of unwanted furniture and IT can now benefit from The Green Package, a new recycling service that will professionally decommission and remove redundant office equipment, and refurbish and redistribute it to community groups and business start-ups. The service also features re-marketing options for IT, with resale proceeds going back to the client.
The service focuses on recycling rather than disposal. It has been launched to help Harrow Green’s clients contribute to reducing the landfill burden and the rise of hazardous ‘electroscrap’, to which waste office equipment makes a significant contribution on both counts. It has also been designed to help clients fulfil their legal responsibilities under the Environmental Protection Act and the new European WEEE Directive on recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment which comes into force in August.
The Green Package is a three-way strategic partnership between Harrow Green, Technical Asset Management.MM (TAM), an IT recycling and re-marketing specialist, and Green-Works, a not-for-profit organisation that bridges the gap between organisations that have redundant furniture and groups that need it.
The package has been designed to be integrated into a client’s relocation program, the most common time for disposing of large amounts of equipment, but can also be implemented as a standalone service outside of the move environment.
UK businesses produce around 35 million tonnes of waste each year, almost 70% of which goes to landfill. British industry discards more than 1.5 million computers every year. 90% of these are fully functioning and fewer than 5% are refurbished for reuse. Irresponsible and unnecessary disposal of IT poses a serious environmental and public health threat, with toxic materials in computers including lead, mercury and cadmium, which can all ‘leach’ into the water supply from landfill.
Where IT disposal is the only option, TAM uses licensed refineries to extract and separate hazardous materials for recycling. Green-Works aims to redistribute 75% of donated furniture to beneficiary organisations at low cost, with all proceeds continuing to fund the initiative. The remainder is used for spares or recycled for a variety of uses, from fuel pellets to materials for art projects.
For more information, contact Harrow Green.
