Staples helps MA businesses recycle

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Staples and MA DEP Join with Earth 911 to Make Recycling Easier for MA Businesses

New Web site Earth911Business.com Provides Resource to Help Businesses Throughout State Implement Recycling and Waste Management Programs

(Boston, MA) — In celebration of National Small Business Week (May 16–22), Earth 911, a free public service providing community–specific environmental information, Staples, Inc. and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection announced today a new online resource Earth 911Business.com that helps businesses throughout Mass. protect the environment and improve their bottom line. Earth 911Business.com provides easy access to comprehensive information on helping businesses reduce waste, create comprehensive waste reduction plans, and implement recycling programs.

Using Earth911Business.com, businesses can now use a ZIP Code locator to pull up a list of recycling companies in their local community providing pick up and/or drop–off location services for various office related materials. In addition, businesses can learn how to implement waste reduction and recycling plans if one is currently not in place. According to Mass. DEP, more than 50 percent of the municipal waste stream is created by businesses in Mass. With more than 170,000 small businesses throughout Mass. every business in the state can take measures to reduce the "waste line" and have a positive impact on the environment and their bottom line.

"While small and mid–sized businesses make up about 98 percent of businesses in Massachusetts, there has not been a rich source of information to help these businesses reduce their impact on the environment cost–effectively," said Mark Buckley, vice president of environmental affairs at Staples. "Earth911Business.com and its support from the Massachusetts DEP provides this resource and also reflects how Staples is working to help small businesses conduct business with the environment in mind."

The Earth911Business site will help businesses make strides to increase recycling and other waste management practices in the state. Each year Mass. businesses generate about five million tons of solid waste of which more than 62 percent is thrown away in landfills, according to Mass. DEP.

Secretary of Environmental Affairs Ellen Roy Herzfelder and DEP Commissioner Robert W. Golledge, Jr. are jointly endorsing Earth911Business.com, saying it’s fitting that Staples, a leading company based in Framingham, Mass. is helping make the new resource possible. "The people of Massachusetts have always been conscious of the environment. We’re excited that Staples has teamed up with the Mass. DEP and Earth 911 to create such an informative, relevant and very necessary resource for all businesses in Massachusetts," Secretary Roy Herzfelder said. "We think this resource will serve as a model for nationwide expansion of the Earth911Business site in the future."

The benefits to businesses and the Mass. environment include:

• Increasing recycling by businesses throughout the state; thus reducing the amount of waste going to landfills.
• Assisting small and medium–sized businesses with developing and implementing cost–effective waste reduction and recycling measures.
• Educating businesses on how and where to buy recycled content products.
• Saving money and resources.
• Serving as a model for the nationwide expansion of this public service.

"This new online service is an effective, dynamic tool that helps businesses reduce waste and cut operating costs," DEP Commissioner Robert W. Golledge, Jr. said. "DEP is pleased to work with Earth 911 and Staples on this important public–private initiative."

About Earth 911
Earth 911 is a free public service providing community–specific environmental information –to the US and Canada via a website, www.Earth911.org and www.CLEANUP.org, and a toll–free, bilingual phone system, 1–800–CLEANUP. This service is free to residents, communities and states, and offers environmental tips, local recycling and household hazardous waste sites, and information on a wide range of environmental topics from air to water. In addition, the Earth 911 Press Room and PSA Library provide ideas and tools to help local coordinators educate and empower the public with the resources to Make Every Day Earth Day.

Founded in 1991 and operated by E2C, Engaging and Empowering Citizenship, the Earth 911 is a public/private sector partnership. Supported in part by environmentally conscious companies including Hewlett Packard, The Home Depot, ESRI, Earth 911 is able to provide its services and programs at no cost to its public sector partners that include the U.S. EPA, all 50 states and thousands of local governments and non–profit organizations nationwide.

Additional resources:
www.earth911business.com
www.earth911.org
www.cleanup.org
www.staples.com/recycle
www.state.ma.us/dep/recycle