M-Tech Printers Environmental Policy

  1. Care & Compliance Policy

    M-Tech Printers is committed to ensuring that the risk of any environmental damage or pollution caused by the company going about its day-to-day business is minimised as far as possible. To this extent the company has produced, and works within, an Environmental Policy.

  2. WEEE

    Producer Indentification Number: WEE/GA4994TV
    The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations aim to reduce the amount of electrical and electronic equipment waste going to landfill and improve recovery and recycling rates. The regulations aim to:
    1. reduce waste from electrical and electronic equipment
    2. encourage the separate collection of WEEE
    3. encourage treatment, reuse, recovery, recycling and sound environmental disposal of WEEE
    4. make producers of EEE responsible for the environmental impact of their products
    5. improve the environmental performance of all those involved during the lifecycle of EEE.
    Company policy has been developed to ensure compliance with:
    1. The WEEE Directive (2002)
    2. Environmental Protection Act 1990
    3. The Environmental Protection (Duty of Care Regulations) 1991
    4. Pollution Prevention & Control Regulations 2000
    5. The Landfill (England & Wales) Regulations 2002
    6. Trans-frontier Shipment of Waste Regulations
    7. Waste Management License Regulations 1994
    8. Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005
    9. RoHS Regulations 2006
    10. UK WEEE Legislation 2007
    11. Environmental Protection 2008

    In forming the policy the company have a WEEE policy that is;

    Environmentally Sustainable

    The company's policy sets criteria for the longevity of EEE in use, safe storage, segregation prior to end of life disposal using, where possible, back load logistics.

    Socially Responsible

    The company's policy ensures that WEEE items to be disposed are taken to various Environment Agency Waste Management Sites by Weeeco Ltd, our Environment Agency registered broker and carrier, from where they are recycled down to raw products ensuring minimisation of land fill and our WEEE does not end up in the 3rd World and/or someone else's responsibility.

    Compliance

    As a producer of EEE the company has joined a producer compliance scheme to meet its obligations under the UK WEEE Legislation.
    M-Tech Printers produces an annual report that incorporates Hazardous Waste Notes, WEEE Destruction Certification and Duty of Care Journey for all WEEE, allowing the company and its customers to assess its impact on the environment and its compliance with various Directives and Regulations. These reports and documents are held by Northern Compliance.

  3. Batteries

    Battery Producer Registration Number: BPRN01304
    Waste batteries and accumulators (rechargeable batteries) can damage the environment and cause health problems as many contain toxic chemicals such as lead, cadmium and zinc. The batteries regulations limit the use of these chemicals by battery manufacturers and give producers the responsibility for ensuring waste batteries are collected and either treated or recycled.
    M-Tech Printers only offer a limited number of batteries supplied fitted to some portable and mobile printers. These are exclusively rechargeable batteries with Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) or Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) chemistries. They are encapsulated such that they can only be used with the specific printer for which they were manufactured. We may also supply replacement batteries as spares or repairs to support previously sold printers. All batteries will be marked with the crossed out wheeled bin symbol to indicate that they should not be disposed of with household waste but should be recycled by an appropriate method.

  4. Printer Consumables

    Paper rolls supplied by M-Tech are all made from virgin pulp sourced from environmentally accredited mills. Due to the high technical requirements of thermal paper it is not possible to use a recycled base as the coating needs to be applied to a very even surface. Recycling plants can not process coated paper so unfortunately it is not really suitable for pure recycling due to the chemical coating. Ordinary paper rolls used with impact printers have no coating and are therefore suitable for recycling. The plastic cores are made from recycled material & can be recycled.

  5. Packaging Waste

    The packaging waste regulations ensure that businesses are responsible for recovering and recycling UK packaging waste.
    M-Tech Printers policy is to re-use as much as possible of the packaging used by our suppliers. We collect and re-use all cartons and filling materials. This policy ensures that we purchase only minimal amounts of new packaging. When it is necessary to buy new packaging we try (where possible) to use materials that our customers can themselves re-use or at least, easily recycle.

  6. Carbon Reduction

    All businesses have some impact on climate change. Some of the main sources of greenhouse gases from businesses include:
    1. emissions from transport, eg employee travel, business vehicles and delivery vehicles
    2. energy consumption of buildings and manufacturing, eg gas and electricity
    3. the lifecycle of products that you use or produce
    4. incineration and decomposition of waste, eg methane is released when waste degrades in landfill sites.
    M-Tech Printer's business model is one of it's greatest strengths. The organisation has been kept deliberately small with minimal office space and staffing. This is primarily to ensure that we can react quickly and efficiently to our customer's requirements and to offer the lowest possible prices but it also impacts on our carbon footprint. Commuting, as well as office heating and lighting are minimal.
    We expect extended product life cycles and by careful stocking and re-use of most products or components our waste production is insignificant.
    With the sensible use of email and occasionally, video conferencing, it has been possible to drastically reduce the number of customer visits. It is, of course all important to have face-to-face meetings sometimes and in these cases our policy is to use public transport where possible. From 2009 we have used the rail network for the majority of customer or supplier visits and to attend trade shows and exhibitions. When it has been necessary to use a car, from January 2014, this has been a petrol/electric hybrid model to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. From October 2015 many of these journeys were taken in a zero emission, battery powered electric vehicle (BEV).
    We have already chosen an energy company that produces electricity from 100% renewable sources (wind, sun and sea) and who only source the greenest available gas in the UK.

  7. M-Tech's Business Waste

    Naturally, our everyday activities create waste. By careful re-use of parts and components the amount of actual waste product for disposal is negligible. Our administrative practices mean that we do not generate an excess of paperwork. Most customer and supplier correspondence is electronic and only a small number of essential documents are actually printed out. When this is necessary, only re-cycled paper is used. We do not print data sheets, brochures or technical manuals, these are all available electronically, either from our website or via email in portable document format (pdf). Finally, unrequired mail from customers or suppliers is shredded and re-used as packaging.