SUSTAINABILITY
How to extend printer lifecycles and reduce e-waste
The problem of e-waste is growing year-on-year and businesses can help to cut this by ensuring their printer fleets are used as long as possible, as Faki Saadi, director, UKI at SOTI, explains.
From warehouses and the retail floor to hospitals and delivery trucks, business- critical printers are everywhere. Each day, they perform important tasks, including printing packing slips so that deliveries are made on time, receipts for customers at point-of-sale terminals, patient wristbands for faster triaging or shipping labels to keep the supply chain moving. It’s easy to understand just how many printers are out there and how disposing of older, broken or no longer needed models can significantly contribute to the growing e-waste problem. The UK generates about six million tonnes of e-waste every year and, according to the UN, is the second-largest producer of e-waste in the world. SOTI data also shows that 38% of UK IT leaders replace devices regardless of whether they still work or not. The impact this has on the environment is a major concern. Many components in these products are toxic and don’t biodegrade easily – if at all. As such, enterprises must do all they can to maintain and repair their printer fleets. Here’s how. Battery health Devices, such as handheld printers, are often left on the charging dock for several hours. This can damage and drain the battery over time, causing it to not function at its best. Batteries only have a limited number of charge-discharge cycles, so it’s key to stay on top of this and ensure each cycle lasts as long as
possible. This can be achieved by: l Using automated tools to monitor battery charge cycles and temperature l Turning on the device’s battery saver mode l Using data to predict when batteries will fail and proactively replacing them l Shortening the idle time before the device goes to sleep and/or locks. Helping from afar If a personal device has an issue, it’s easy to walk into a local electronics shop to have it repaired but for a large industrial printer, it often requires a maintenance
Faki Saadi director of sales. UKI
soti.net
person to make an on-site trip – or two, if parts need to be ordered. A smaller corporate device would also still need to be shipped back to HQ if faulty. Not only is this time-
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Implementing environmentally sustainable practices helps companies meet their corporate social responsibility obligations while avoiding costly replacements...
consuming and causes downtime, it’s also an unnecessary burden on the environment
with packaging, shipping and fuel costs to consider. This can lead to
companies opting to replace equipment as opposed to fixing the problem at hand. But this doesn’t have to
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