Sustainability

Head to our community page to see how many trees we have planted so far.

As part of our commitment to the environment, B2B Technologies is planting trees on behalf of our customers when they sign up with us.

Did you know that to print 1 page on a laser printer is approximately 1 gram of carbon dioxide (CO2)? To manufacture the paper itself it’s 5 grams of CO2. Therefore, if you are printing an average of 13,000 pages per month, then 6 trees will offset this per year.

B2B Technologies has now partnered with Fifteen Trees to provide native trees to NSW community groups for their planting projects. 

Fifteen Trees is a company that helps individuals and businesses reduce their carbon footprint and combat the effects of climate change by sponsoring Australian community tree-planting projects.

 The trees are a mixture of eucalyptus and acacia species, indigenous to the district in which they are planted. They are sourced from local native nurseries.

Our print software solutions help eliminate paper waste, and encourage responsible print behaviour that makes users and departments accountable for their print usage.

Follow-me-printing is a software used to enhance your multifunction printer. This securely releases print outs from any device, preventing wastage. It also allows for the use of authentication methods like a swipe-card or PIN to release the printout, keeping your document safe and secure until you need it.

Our digital workflow solutions let you manage documents and files, and streamline flow of documents. This heightens office efficiency and productivity, by allowing files to be sent to the next person at the click of a button! To ensure it is well-received, a pop-up or email notification is generated when a file arrives to you; significantly eliminating the use of paper. Not only is this sustainable, but it will significantly reduce costs towards paper use, and replacing lost documents, which takes around 25 hours to recreate or almost $200 to find (Gartner Group).

Our electronic document management systems help our clients to reduce their paper use. With this, you can maintain version control through collaboration tools that ensure everyone is using the correct version – meaning no double ups and no printing!

Environmental sustainability means maintaining the rates of renewable resources, so we offer refurbished printing devices.

Refurbished machines are printers that have been previously used, but restored to its original condition. Most machines have a lifespan of millions of pages – a hundred thousand prints are low! Reusing and recycling these machines means that they stay in operation for the intended amount of time they were built for, reducing waste.

Once a refurbished machine has returned to our warehouse, it is examined and tested before being restored. Our technicians reset the device including clearing any remaining data on the hard drive, clean the machine thoroughly, replace or repair parts (if any!). Before being sent out to our customer, the machine is cleaned again, and tested one last time to ensure our client receives it in prime condition.

Our warehouse stores numerous machines, some of which are in perfect condition without an owner. In order to avoid wastage, machines are occasionally used for parts when needed. This not only saves us from ordering a new, unneeded part, but allows a quick-turnover for the customer when a machine is being refurbished or serviced.

Kyocera’s ECOSYS (Economy, Ecology and Systems) line of printers have new technology that separates the toner from other consumables, like the drum. This means that when the toner is depleted, instead of replacing the whole cartridge, you just replace the toner. This means a significant decrease in landfill waste.

Toner recycling is very critical in the print industry. Toner collections are implemented so that the empty cartridge can be re-used or repurposed. Our partners, namely Ricoh and Lexmark, ensure their cartridges are 100% recyclable in accordance with the zero waste-to-landfill goal.

According to Lexmark, in 2009, 34% of laser cartridges collected have been re-used. Ricoh’s cartridge recycle program has recycled over 1,104 tonnes of toner cartridges.

In order for us to do our part, we have teamed up with ‘Close the Loop’ as a registered drop point, so businesses can recycle printer cartridges with us for free. Just email: sands@b2btechnologies.com.au

Our partner, Ricoh Australia, also function their own free recycling program. If you have a Ricoh device, and need to organise a pick up direct, click here.

So, what is done with the recycled laser cartridges? The toner left in the cartridges are used as fuel alternates in cement work; the mixed plastic used as additional fine sorting; non-ferrous metal is given to smelters for refining and re-use, and ferrous metal is given to steel works for re-use. Some manufacturers repurpose old cartridges into workplace objects such as rulers.