Sustainability, Recycling in an Optical Practice, what are your ideas?

[sharpstick777]

I am hoping to share ideas on what optical dispensers have done to practice with more environmental sustainability.
Especially if you have onsite edging.

Have you done anything in your practice to be more environmentally conscience and friendly?

What can we do as an industry?

Ideas are great, but please identify if its something you actually DO from an idea you just think of.

[sharpstick777]

Bump? Anyone even have a blue trash can for paper?

[Flux3r]

sorry, wrong thread

[scriptfiller]

There's got to be a way of recycling dry-cut shavings.?

[vcom]

After changing out the giant bucket of lens shavings/powder under the vacuum unit of our Generator for the millionth time, my Lab Manager suggested we invest in a few thousand baggies, fill them up and take a trip down to NYC to sell as many as we could, as quickly as we could.

I thought it would be more fun to put the baggies in a suitcase with a bad latch, then 'accidently' spill it open in public, maybe the mall, bus stop, stuff like that, film peoples reactions.

Alas, for whatever reason, neither of these plans ever came to be.

As far as recycling in our office, we try to separate bottles and cans to go to the redemption center. I use a recirculating and filtering water pump system with my edger, to try to reduce weird stuff going down the drain, and honestly that's about it.

I have often wondered about whether it was possible to melt down all the swarf, and create some new super plastic that will be called... hi-poly-tri-dex!!

[rbaker]

They're rioting in Africa, they're starving in Spain.
There's hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don't like anybody very much!

But we can be tranquil, and thankful, and proud,
For mans' been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud.
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off, and we will all be blown away.

They're rioting in Africa, there's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us, will be done by our fellow man.

And you are worrying about ten pounds od scrap polymer a year. Give me a break!

[nicksims]

Cute poem. Ten pounds a year? Hell, I make more than that with one edger a week. Assuming I change the filter properly!
I have no idea what to do with the swarf, but the leap pads? The goal wasn't to recycle, but a "what the hell can i do with these little sticky things?" So I started building little mounds which turned into dragons, monsters, and a mountain range for my daughter to giggle at and play. Silly, but it passes the time between lenses. And patients laugh too at the slowly morphing black blob. I've heard about the little contests but have never entered one. Some of you out there are pretty talented with building things with tiny sticky things.

[MakeOptics]

And you are worrying about ten pounds od scrap polymer a year. Give me a break!

Warren Buffet says watch the small expenses. I would say the same could apply to protection of the environment, watch the small stuff.

[EyeManDan]

I changed out my display lights with LEDs, cut back on power usage, not changing out lights every other day. that's about all I can think off that we can do. except go back to paper files.

[rbaker]

Cute poem.

Cripes, I must really be getting old. Its not a poem but a song by the great Kingston Trio from the sixties. Light up the old bong and listen up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8-BI89mb9A

[D_Zab]

When I was working in the lab I thought to myself that I should get in contact with the manufacturers of fake snow and see if I could work out some partnership where I supply the snow, they package and sell it then we split the profits. There may have been some health concerns with the residual coolants in the swarf but if we ignore it then it's not really a problem, right ?