USDANEWS                                                           VOLUME 58 NO. 9 — DECEMBER 1999

Simply Stuff That Envelope, Then Note What Happens Next
Hey! Stop that! Don’t throw away that ink jet printer cartridge, because it can be recycled--and help create jobs in the process. Okay, good. You pulled it back out of the trash can. Now here’s what can happen next--and why.

On November 15, which was “America Recycles Day,” USDA began a new initiative: the recycling of ink jet printer cartridges, used in printers by many employees at headquarters and field offices across the country.

But, according to Richard Holcombe, a procurement analyst in USDA’s Office of Procurement, Property and Emergency Preparedness, the Department’s latest recycling effort has a dual purpose: recycling used ink jet printer cartridges is providing a start-up inventory for a recycled product made by persons with disabilities.

“That mailing bag is just the right size and strength to safely hold this printer cartridge,” confirms OPPEP procurement analyst Richard Holcombe (right), as OC public affairs assistant Craig Hall holds open the mailing bag. Standing on the shelf behind them in USDA’s Visitor Information Center is a plastic holder which displays the pre-addressed mailing envelopes. It’s all part of the Department’s latest recycling effort: recycle used ink jet printer cartridges--and, in the process, provide a start-up inventory for a recycled product made by persons with disabilities. --Photo by Bill Tarpenning

“To make this happen,” he explained, “USDA is partnering with NISH--formerly known as the National Institute for Severely Handicapped--a national nonprofit agency that is part of the federal government’s Javits-Wagner-O’Day Program, or 'JWOD’.”

“JWOD,” he said, “is a federal program that uses the massive purchasing power of the federal government to offer people with disabilities the chance to provide products and services to federal customers.”

Holcombe noted that USDA employees can mail the used ink jet printer cartridges to NISH’s West Regional Office in Pleasanton, Calif. That office, in turn, works with community rehabilitation programs in California to create jobs sorting, refilling, stocking, packaging, and selling the recycled cartridges back to the federal government.

“This is an easy, very positive way to support two important federal goals--recycling our waste materials and providing jobs for persons with disabilities,” said Debbie Matz, the Department’s co-environmental executive and deputy assistant secretary for administration. She became an advocate for this Departmental initiative after Holcombe first proposed the idea to her in an “America Recycles Day” meeting last September.

Matz immediately adopted it and then led the campaign to promote it in USDA.

To get the initiative off to a big start, NISH provided USDA with 5,000 postage-paid envelopes for mailing the used cartridges back to NISH. Ava Nickens, a section chief in the Mail and Reproduction Management Division in the Office of Operations, said that her staff labeled the back of each envelope with the USDA logo. “That way,” she explained, “NISH personnel could track how many used cartridges they actually receive from USDA.” When employees need more mailing envelopes they may call OO management analyst Cedric Drake at (202) 720-1148 (voice) or 1-800-877-8339 (TTY).

In addition, NISH provided a plastic holder which displays the envelopes for mailing the used cartridges back to it. Those holders and envelopes were placed in USDA’s Visitor Information Center in the Department’s Whitten Building in Washington, DC, and were provided to USDA’s subcabinet officials. In addition, Forest Service Property Management Officer Paige Ballard said his agency plans to distribute the envelopes to all FS offices and Visitors Centers around the country by next spring, for dissemination to the public.

“And, just as this flyer says, we can use that pre-addressed mailing bag to help keep the environment clean and create jobs for people with severe disabilities,” notes Annette James (right), an offset photographer in OO’s Duplicating Services Section. She and Jane Settle, an OGC attorney and president of USDA’s Association for Persons with Disabilities in Agriculture, are discussing the Department’s recent initiative to recycle ink jet printer cartridges. --Photo by Bill Tarpenning

Jane Settle, a staff attorney in the Regulatory Division of the Office of the General Counsel and president of USDA’s Association for Persons with Disabilities in Agriculture (APDA), heard about this initiative when Matz presented it at a November meeting of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee for Employees with Disabilities. “APDA then offered to help promote the program and identify USDA field locations that use large numbers of ink jet printers,” she said, “so those offices can receive adequate quantities of the mailers.”

Sharon Holcombe, the Department’s recycling program manager for this effort, noted that employees who are unsure about what type of printer cartridge they have can look on the front or top of the computer printer for identifying information.

“Ink jet cartridges come in black and color options and both are recyclable to NISH,” she explained. “But printers with the word 'Laser’ on the nameplate use laser cartridges--and those do not recycle via this particular USDA initiative.” Instead, she said, laser printer cartridges are recycled at USDA’s Central Supply Store at USDA headquarters in Washington, DC, and at many field offices that have recycling plans in place for laser printer cartridges.

“As part of this new initiative,” she added, “USDA employees can send in used ink jet printer cartridges from work or home.”

“It doesn’t matter to the Department or to NISH where the inventory comes from--it all contributes to recycling and to diverting materials from the waste stream.”

“And remember,” she affirmed, “that to complete the recycling circle, we should purchase and use the recycled ink jet cartridges.” 

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