Mailstream company Pitney Bowes South Africa is engaging with its overseas partners to find more ways in which its products can contribute to the reduction of its customers’ carbon footprints.

“Pitney Bowes, in the US, is devising plans to determine how local entities can reduce the carbon footprint of products used in the mailstream. From a local aspect, we are also considering ways to make printers, which can use remanufactured cartridges, more efficient,” says Pitney Bowes South Africa MD Michael Springer.

Pitney Bowes Batsumi was formed in 2008, in association with global mailstream com- pany Pitney Bowes South Africa and is a Level 1 black economic-empowerment company supplying Pitney Bowes consumables and other products and solutions with the support of Pitney Bowes South Africa.

The company is a local supplier of remanufactured JetPrint cartridges produced by cartridge company Royce Imaging Industries.

“Every time a JetPrint-branded cartridge is remanufactured, the carbon footprint for every cartridge is reduced by about 2.5 kg of carbon dioxide emissions and 3 ℓ of crude oil,” says Pitney Bowes Batsumi MD Thokozani Gumede.

The 1.5 kg cartridges used in the mailstream industry comprise 40% plastic and 40% metal, with the remainder comprising smaller percentages of rubber, paper, foam and toner.

Reuse through the remanufacturing of these printer cartridges not only reduces pollution but also ensures a noticeable reduction in the depletion of the natural resources used to make new cartridges.

The remanufacturing process is performed in accordance with international Standardised Testing Methods Committee (STMC) standards – a quality measurement for monochrome printer cartridges.

STMC uses American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) test methods, such as ASTM F 1856 for yield and ASTM F 2036 for image density and background, to compare a remanufactured cartridge with another cartridge, typically that of an original-equipment manufacturer (OEM).

Springer says that, although the brand has the potential to be marketed as a high- quality brand, many people are hesitant to buy remanufactured cartridges despite the fact that they are up to 40% cheaper than new cartridges.

the product has been available to the industry before but, as a result of speculation regarding remanufactured cartridges in general, it was difficult to convince people to buy them.

“We are constantly engaged in ongoing marketing efforts to change customers’ mindset and to convince them that, while it is cheaper to buy a remanufactured cartridge than a new cartridge, the remanufactured cartridge can still be of the same quality as OEM cartridges,” he points out.

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