Initiative also extends Ecoworks support-removal agent to all soluble support removal systems
FRANKFURT- 22 March 2011 - (NASDAQ: SSYS) Stratasys Inc., maker of additive manufacturing machines for prototyping and producing plastic parts, today announced two more programmes in its environmental stewardship initiative, announced last year. The programmes include an ambitious expansion of the company’s material carrier recycling programme, and an extension of Ecoworks™ cleaning agent to the company’s full line of support-cleaning systems.
Recycle Programme averts 115 truckloads from landfill
Though informally offered to customers for five years, Stratasys redesigned its consumable-plastic-material carrier recycling programme to encourage customer participation among Dimension® 3D Printer and Fortus® 3D Production system owners. The programme directs users to return their spent material spools, cartridges and canisters to the factory for refurbishing and reuse to prevent other disposal means. It also includes an intuitive website that prompts users through a quick process to generate a return label to the factory.
“After listening to our resellers and end users, we knew we needed to streamline the process as well as improve awareness,” says Stratasys business development director Fred Fischer. “Customers found the old programme unclear and cumbersome or were unaware it existed. Our new simplified programme eliminates the problem by making it easy to participate.”
Currently the logistics of small shipments across international borders limit the programme to Europe and the US, although further expansion is being studied. For European and US customers, clear and prominent instructions on the consumable-plastic box direct users to
www.Stratasys.com/recycle, where they’re prompted through the return process. For other geographic areas, instructions are available to help with local recycling.
“We believe the new recycling programme will significantly increase participation, reducing our technology’s environmental footprint by keeping the plastic carriers out of landfills,” says Fischer. “We have an ambitious plan to double the participation rate in 2011.”
With the informal recycling programme, an average of 36 refuse collection lorries (approximated 1,200 metres) of material waste were annually reused or recycled instead of dumped in landfills. From programme inception through 2010, approximately 4000 metres – equivalent to 115 refuse collection lorries – of spent plastic carriers were returned to the factory for reuse or recycling rather than being land-filled.
Today — of the material carriers returned to Stratasys — more than 95 percent are reused or recycled. Stratasys aims to continue streamlining the process, increasing participation rates and the volume of carriers it reuses or recycles.
