Good for the environment-smart for business; recycling plastics from end of life mailing equipment

Abstract

The Pitney Bowes Product Disposition Center (PDC) in Newtown, CT disassembles returned mailing equipment. The facility recovers service parts, removes hazardous constituents for proper disposal, and recycles the remaining materials (metals and plastics). In January 1996, partnering with wTe Corporation of Dorchester, MA helped to fulfill the motto of the Design For Environmental Quality (DFEQ) program at Pitney Bowes-PB Green: Good for the Environment-Smart for Business. The mixed plastic and metal waste stream generated by the PDC is now part of a system that recycles the metals, and redirects plastic materials from waste-to-energy disposal to a recycling application. The recovered plastic can then be used as the feedstock for custom resin blends requiring post-consumer plastics. The primary focus point for the plastics recovery portion of the wTe-Pitney Bowes partnership has been polycarbonate/ABS (PC/ABS) which is used in Pitney Bowes products. By implementing this program, a positive step has been taken in further developing the infrastructure necessary to increase the quantity and consistency of high quality plastics being recovered in existing and future end-of-life equipment recovery operations. This paper summarizes some of the key features of the program, describing both the benefits of the program as well as some of the barriers encountered.