Product takeback and material recovery and reuse are key elements in a sustainable system that decreases the use of virgin materials by replacing them with post-consumer and post-industrial materials. Manufacturing companies like Hewlett-Packard are designing products today with takeback and recycling processes in mind to improve the sustainability of their business.

This presentation describes Hewlett-Packard's InkJet Supplies business approach to environmental product design and shows how it supports our product takeback and recycling programs. It then describes the environmental design goals for the printing system that includes a printer (a piece of electronic hardware), a print cartridge (a consumable electronic supply that containing ink), and paper.

The link between design changes and system benefits is illustrated in two case studies where design changes were driven by environmental gains. In each case, the design changes improved the efficiency of the takeback and recycling program and had net economic and operational value. Finally, the paper will discuss service extension models that are being evaluated and considered for future products. These models are looking at changing from product-driven sales (i.e. sale of an inkjet cartridge) to service driven sales (i.e. sale of printed pages).

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Last updated: 13 June, 2001