From donating surplus equipment to establishing take-back programs for used products, the scientific, photographic, and control equipment industry has a wealth of waste reduction opportunities. Below is a sampling of the commitments and achievements of WasteWise partners in this industry. These types of activities also can help your company reduce waste and cut costs. For more information or to enroll your company in WasteWise, call 800 EPAWISE (372-9473) or visit our home page at [www.epa.gov/wastewise].

The cornerstone of WasteWise, waste prevention means using less material to do the same job, cutting waste before recycling. Regardless of industry sector, everyone can take advantage of general waste prevention goals, such as double-sided copying, packaging reduction, or switching to reusable supplies. Some WasteWise partners in the scientific, photographic, and control equipment industry have gone beyond the basics and implemented activities that target industry-specific waste materials. The following is a sampling of these goals:

• Save and reuse shipping boxes and foam peanuts for outgoing packages.
• Donate surplus or used scientific equipment to local schools.
• Institute a materials- exchange program for lab stations.
• Donate surplus or short-dated medical supplies and equipment to nonprofits.
• Take back packaging from customers and reuse it in the manufacturing process.
• Collect used single-use cameras from customers and reuse parts to manufacture new cameras.
• Decrease garbage bag use by reusing film bags for trash collection.
• Purchase film without cartons—request cartonless film from manufacturer.
• Design products to be easily disassembled and reused in other products.
• Take products back at end of life cycle and reuse parts and materials.

WasteWise partners commit to initiating, expanding, or improving company programs to collect recyclables. In some cases, companies add new materials to an existing program, or they increase effectiveness through activities such as employee education or community outreach. WasteWise partners in the scientific, photographic, and control equipment industry have set these goals:

• Recycle Tyvek gowns and booties used for manufacturing.
• Recycle x-ray film.
• Implement closed-loop recycling of HDPE plastic in 35 mm film canisters.
• Improve de-inking and pulping processes on photographic paper-making machines to allow operation to recycle more white paper.
• Collect PET film for recycling.

WasteWise partners commit to increasing the overall recycled content in the products they purchase. WasteWise partners that are manufacturers can either increase the percentage of postconsumer content in the products they make or increase the recycled content in the products they purchase. Buy-recycled activities of WasteWise partners in the scientific, photographic, and control equipment industry include:

• Manufacture polyester film base with recycled content.
• Use recovered plastic in molded product components.
• Use postconsumer plastic in the manufacture of toner and copier cartridges.
• Increase number and percent of returned copier parts used to manufacture new machines.

• Acuson Corp.
• Amgen, Inc.
• Baxter International Inc.
• Canon USA, Inc.
• Eastman Kodak Company
• Fleetwood Photo
• Fuji Tru Color
• Millipore Corp.
• Optical Coating Laboratories
• Pall Gelman Sciences
• Perkin-Elmer Corporation
• Polaroid Corp.
• Toshiba America Information Systems
• United States Surgical Corp.
• Xerox Corp.

• Through the Fun Saver return program, Eastman Kodak Company eliminated more than 4.4 million pounds of film, plastic, and paper materials and saved $300,000 in 1997 by reusing parts to make new cameras. The company recycles and reuses more than 85 percent of the weight of each Fun Saver camera.
• Between 1996 and 1997, Baxter achieved a 5.6 percent unit reduction in waste generation, resulting in a 4 million pound reduction and a cost savings of $1.5 million due to avoided disposal and material usage costs.
• By redesigning products such as photocopiers and printers for easy disassembly and reuse in new products, Xerox reused more than 89 million pounds of mixed metal and plastics. In 1997, Xerox achieved an overall solid waste recycling and reuse rate of nearly 80 percent in the United States.