Page 9 - BOSS Today Issue 16

where the waste was going. We First scheme
discovered they had 43 different The development of this idea
arrangements for dealing with has led to what Costin claims
their waste paper. All that is not just Britain’s but Europe’s FASHION
just from one government first truly closed loop copier
department. paper recycling system. All paper
collected by HMRC goes to the
“We found that the end user Steinbeis mill, and the recycled AND
often doesn’t know where the
Nor is it just HMRC who are FUNCTION
waste ends up, and also often material is then delivered back to
doesn’t realise that there is so the client for reuse.
much value to be gained from
waste paper. taking advantage of this any
The company renegotiated more. “We started out with one While the recycled materials market is in full swing,
its contract with the HMRC to a department - HMRC,” says Costin. it wouldn’t be true to say the virgin materials
position where it did all HMRC’s “We are now covering 17 central market is totally in the doldrums either.
paper distribution, measured government departments. We Last autumn ACCO launched a new range of
the amount of paper needed tendered for a bid for all office notebooks, folios, document holders and filing
and controlled where it went supplies for these departments, products, all clad in leather effect crocodile skin in
for disposal. “We were auditing and were successful. We now fetching tones of dark red and black.
where the waste paper would deliver 35,000 boxes of copier According to the company’s European product
end up so that we could also look paper to these departments manager Andrea Murphy, the fashion-led focus of
at its resale value,” says Costin. every three weeks. And we have the new range, known as Croc, is deliberate.
But it also began to look at recycled over 2 billion sheets of An upsurge in home working among the
how such a system could be paper in the last two years. twenty- and thirtysomethings in its target end user
expanded. “We began to wonder The system clearly works market has led to an increase in demand for office
what would happen if we put better on a larger scale. Costin products that look professionally produced and
all this paper recycling out to says that despite the need to stylish.
just one mill, which in our case make sure all deliveries and To help the dealer selling the the range,
is Steinbeis in Germany,” he says. backloads stay within a self- accompanying sales materials and web collateral
“We could deliver recycled paper contained system, it is not as have also been produced.
to Steinbeis and backload it with expensive to run as you might “The filing market may be down,” says Murphy,
paper for the client.” initially think – partly because of “but one market we have seen growth in is the
the investment made by Banner professional notebook sector. Despite technology
Costin: uses at the start of the process. being widely available to everyone the
smaller suppliers
professional notebook market is still in growth. That
Bringing it home is why we have brought this new fashion line.”
And it is here, he says, that the She says the regrowth of interest in what might
success of the system could be deemed old-style technology even applies
lead to at least some paper to younger generations too. Note-taking, she
manufacturing coming back to says, remains popular, even among iPad-crazy
the UK. schoolchildren.
“That is still some way off,” he “Research in the USA has also shown that taking
says, “but there is nowhere in the notes allows people – especially young people – to
UK that can currently do 100% retain more information,” she says.
recycled paper in this way, and Teenagers, as many a parent knows, are also
we could have a bolt on to an fashion-conscious. But a product launch which
existing facility. We need scale to matches that with educational benefits could be a
make this happen.” winner.
So far, things are looking

March/April 2013 | BOSS TODAY 9

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