Copier
Equipment Experts
LISTENING
STUDY: We're hearing from many people that they're afraid
to use recycled paper because it would void their copier
warranty. Does your warranty say that?
"I
have never heard of warranty limitations on the use
of recycled paper in copiers. Our environmental assessment
of the copiers we use asks if the machine has been designed
to use recycled paper; they all are. Some printers,
rather than copiers, might not say they're designed
for recycled." - Larry Rogero, Kinko's
LISTENING
STUDY: What is your policy regarding use of recycled
paper in your copiers?
"We stock all our self-service machines with recycled
paper. We have increased our use of recycled paper,
from 6% of our total fiber usage to 14% of our total
fiber usage; we have seen no impact on our productivity
from that shift." - Larry Rogero, Kinko's
"NASA
requires its copier equipment vendor to also provide
recycled paper that works. The vendor has to take out
any machines in which the paper doesn't work or causes
problems. Suddenly, the service technicians stopped
blaming the paper." - Fran McPoland, former Federal
Environmental Executive, National Recycling Coalition
conference, January 2002
LISTENING STUDY: Is there any problem with using
recycled paper in your copiers? Specifically, is there
a problem with dusting (which can impair the operation
of optical sensors) generated by higher postconsumer
content papers?
"We
have had problems with a particular recycled product.
We ran a 100% postconsumer paper that jammed frequently
in our big high-speed copiers. I think it was a bad
run or bad mill; I don't think the problems were necessarily
due to the recycled content. Other branches use only
100% pcc in their high-speed copiers and don't experience
any problems. One of our branches stocks all express
copiers with 100% pcc, and doesn't experience any problems."
- Larry Rogero, Kinko's
LISTENING STUDY: Do you train copier maintenance
people to be positive towards use of recycled paper?
"We do not specifically train our employees regarding
recycled paper. We do get technicians who say that copier
problems are due to the poor quality of the paper, but
the paper quality isn't based on the recycled content.
Virgin papers have problems too." - Larry Rogero,
Kinko's
LISTENING
STUDY: Can you tell us anything else to help us get
a clearer picture of the use of recycled in your copiers?
Have you done any tests or studies?
"Regarding the recycled paper that we run in our test
units, which contains 30 percent post-consumer content,
BLI Senior Test Technician Bernard Lyons has found no
noticeable difference in the runnability of recycled
paper versus virgin paper. In a survey we published
in January 2001, close to 40 percent of the respondents
reported using recycled paper, with 100 percent of them
reporting being satisfied with the paper." - Daria
Hoffman, Buyers Laboratory, Inc., an independent office
products testing laboratory, Hackensack, NJ
Excerpts from "Recycled Paper: The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly," Special Report by Lynda Perini, Associate
Editor, Buyers Laboratory, Inc., October 1995 (Buyers
Laboratory, Inc., an independent office products testing
laboratory in Hackensack, NJ, tests copier models for
subscribers such as major corporations and always includes
recycled paper in the paper used to test the machines.):
"We've contacted
purchasers, users and manufacturers of both recycled
paper and office equipment, as well as industry experts.
The report also incorporates information obtained from
a survey on the use and runnability of recycled paper
sent to our subscribers. . . .
To keep this report
in perspective for the general office, we've kept the
focus primarily on copy paper, that is, paper generally
used in office equipment such as printers, copiers and
facsimile machines. . . .
BLI received a total
of 210 responses, which were split evenly between recycled
paper users and non-uers - 51 and 49 percent, respectively.
. . .
BLI's survey results
indicated that an overwhelming 90 percent of recycled
paper users rated runnability as either the 'most important'
or a 'very important' purchasing criteria. . . . And
of those who do not use recycled paper, among the top
reasons cited were concerns about how it would perform
in office equipment, either based on hearsay (27 percent)
or experience (25 percent). . . . However, judging by
the 82 percent of responses that found the runnability
of recycled paper to be either 'excellent' or 'good,'
it seems that for the most part, recycled paper is meeting
users' expectations. . . .
The 84 respondents
who use recycled paper commented on its use in 240 specific
office products. . . . [F]or the most part the need
for service and for user maintenance has remained the
same since recycled paper has been used instead of virgin
paper. . . . Only 16 percent of responses cited an increased
need for service since recycled paper has been used
in their equipment, while 84 percent said service levels
had remained the same. . . .
[M]ost subscribers
interviewed by BLI agreed that its runnability is largely
comparable to that of virgin paper. As a matter of fact,
BLI's own experiences with recycled paper also reflect
this. In BLI's copier testing, 10 percent of the total
volume of paper used is recycled paper with 20 percent
post-consumer content . . . . This paper is used in
about 50 to 60 copiers per year, and technicians have
reported that this paper runs with no more problems
than virgin paper. . . .
Most of the paper
manufacturers we spoke to said that recycled papers
offer a performance equivalent to that of their virgin
counterparts, without excessive misfeeding. It is the
physical characteristics of the paper, such as surface
smoothness, thickness and porosity - not recycled paper
content - that determine whether the paper will run
well, they said . . . ."
|
