Sunday, September 20, 2009

At a luncheon this past week at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Tangerine Office Systems was awarded the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce's "BIZ E Small Business Excellence Award" for "Green Business of the Year."

Edy Seaver, President of Tangerine Office Systems in Las Vegas, Nevada, knows a thing or two about running a green business as well as how to help other businesses minimize their carbon footprints. Seaver has been in the toner industry for more than twenty-five years and wants the public to know what happens to the 110 million cartridges that are thrown into landfills every year.

Tangerine is a community-based business that supplies the Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada areas. Seaver says, "Recycling toner cartridges is not only a smart thing to do for the ecology, but it's also a very easy way for any company to begin their process of becoming green. Recycling is a win/win for businesses and the environment."

"The best part of all this," says Seaver, "is that by picking up thousands of our customer's empty toner cartridges and recycling them, we are keeping those cartridges out of the local landfills. Doing this also enables us to offer those remanufactured cartridges to our customers at factory-direct prices. Not only are we helping the environment, but we're also helping our customers to save money at a time when they appreciate such savings more than ever. Most people don't realize that every cartridge that Tangerine recycles saves approximately three quarts of oil. This is just one of the reasons we were so excited to win the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce's Green Business of the Year Award. This information is likely to make a lot of companies rethink their toner purchases.

Edy's statements and facts about the importance of recycling toner cartridges drew an emotional response from the audience at this week's award luncheon. Her company's slogan, "Tangerine - your office needs in a squeeze," brought an appropriately light moment to the event.

The award went to the company that best exhibited the following qualities:

• Utilizes green products and programs to achieve business goals and increase efficiency.

• Shows reduced environmental impact through green initiatives.

• Demonstrates commitment to utilizing sustainable materials and/or practices.

Seaver stresses, "Buying remanufactured toner cartridges and recycling empty cartridges are easy ways to reduce the environmental impact of these products while saving substantial amounts of money. More than 500 million OEM toner and inkjet cartridges are manufactured every year. If these cartridges are not diverted from our landfills, this equates to almost 1,000 tons of unnecessary pollution that can enter our waste stream every day."

Tangerine has their finger on the pulse of American business. According to Tiller, a New York-based advocacy marketing firm, nearly half of all Americans plan to make some sort of change to help the environment, and are willing to either reduce their energy use or recycle more.

The environmental benefits to recycling toner cartridges include:

• 97% of a Cartridge is Recyclable

The typical used toner cartridge weighs about three pounds and is composed of 40% plastic, 40% metal, and smaller percentages of rubber, paper, foam, and toner. The plastic is made of engineering-grade polymers and takes at least 1,000 years to decompose. However, approximately 97% of these combined components can be recycled and reused.

• Recycling Conserves Resources

Accordingly, using remanufactured toner cartridges reduces pollution and waste by minimizing the amount of materials, such as plastic, steel, aluminum, and rubber, disposed of in landfills. It also conserves natural resources by eliminating the need for virgin materials used to make new cartridges. For each pound of new material used in remanufacturing, 5 to 9 pounds of virgin materials are conserved.

• Recycling Saves Energy

Using remanufactured toner cartridges also saves energy. Approximately three quarts of oil are burned in the production of a single new toner cartridge. This equates to more than 375,000 gallons of oil consumed every year to make toner and inkjet cartridges.

Tangerine started ten years ago by delivering toner cartridges. They are now an Authorized Xerox Dealer, Authorized HP Dealer, and operate a complete service department. Today, Tangerine Office Systems is a full service office supply company. As part of a national buying group, TriMega, they have more than seventeen billion dollars in purchasing power.

In addition to copiers and toners, they offer more than 40,000 office, break room, and janitorial supplies with free next-day delivery by their own company drivers. Of their vast inventory, more than 5,000 of the products Tangerine carries are "green" products. These products are labeled recycled, biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and energy saving. Their online catalog enables their customers to purchase supplies 24/7.

Edy's husband Ira Seaver has been a leader in toner technology since the early 1980's, developing formulations that last longer and give better copy quality than some OEMs. Tangerine delivers the best possible toner technology due to the extensive knowledge of Ira Seaver. His toners have been sold throughout the world. Ira was instrumental in developing the chip technology that enables remanufacturing. He has maintained his reputation for high quality, producing cartridges in Henderson, Nevada with less than a one percent failure rate. Buying remanufactured cartridges is the easiest, most cost-effective way for any company to save money and reduce their carbon footprint. Ira was one of the founding partners of Tangerine and ran the company up until 2006 when his wife, Edy, took over as President. To book Edy Seaver to talk about the ways you can help your company to go green, contact Robin Jay at the Las Vegas Convention Speakers Bureau: Robin@LVCSB.com.

Tangerine Office Systems plans on continuing to produce the newest and latest model compatible toner products on the market, while using the highest manufacturing standards.