HP Unveils Printer Made of 30% Recycled Plastic at Sustainability Summit

(Pictured above: HP’s Ellen Jackowski presents at the company’s Sustainable Impact Summit in Nashville.)

HP showcased how it is delivering on its broadened promise to slash the carbon footprint of its products with what it claims is the first printer consisting of 30% recycled plastic.

The company introduced the new Tango Terra at last week’s HP Innovation for Sustainable Impact Summit in Nashville. At the invite-only event for analysts and press, HP also revealed that it will invest $200 million to develop water-based ink for its 3-D printers, discussed the recycled materials in its new Elite DragonFly commercial 2-in-1 laptop PC that started shipping Friday, and shared how the company is extending its already formidable recycling efforts.

Reducing HP’s carbon footprint is a key priority for Enrique Lores, president of HP’s $20 billion printing and imaging business. Lores, who will step up to become HP’s new CEO when Dion Weisler steps aside at the end of this week, announced a broad vision at the HP Reinvent partner conference back in March, promising that all of the company’s printers will consist of 30% recycled materials by 2025, up from 7% on average today.

HP Tango Terra Printer

“We have quite a quite a lot of work to do,” Ellen Jackowski, HP’s global head of sustainability strategy and innovation said at last week’s summit.

Jackowski is leading the effort to help HP achieve that goal. She introduced the Tango Terra, an eco-friendly and lighter version of its Tango inkjet printer, at the event describing it as the first printer to come from that initiative.

“This is the world’s most sustainable home printing system,” she said.

In addition to the 30% recycled plastic that makes up the Tango Terra printer, which is designed, manufactured and maintained under the CarbonNeutral Protocol, HP said it uses cartridges that are based on 48-73% recycled content from plastics recovered from oceans and beaches. The printer uses HP’s Instant Ink program, the company’s subscription ink delivery model that simplifies the recycling of cartridges and reduces plastic waste by up to 50%, according to HP. Likewise, the Tango Terra is packaged without plastic and comes with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper. The Tango Terra will start selling directly at HP’s online store, at Best Buy and through Amazon on Friday, Nov. 1, at a list price of $159.

While targeted at the consumer market, company officials said the introduction of the Tango Terra printer underscores how HP is accelerating the use of recycled materials in the manufacturing of its entire product lines, across its consumer, commercial and enterprise lines of business, which are provided through the channel and through partners who provide managed print services, said David Lary, general manager of supplies sales for HP’s Americas region.

“The days of where you go out and buy a printer and you have this aftermarket concept of buying cartridges, ink and toner cartridges is moving to a more contractual sort of motion, especially in the commercial world,” Lary said. “We are enabling such services as managed print services in commercial and corporate organizations, where similar to Instant Ink, we are effectively monitoring a fleet and the service calls are going down dramatically. We are enabling those folks to recycle, and we manage the entire print environment.”

HP’s new $200 million investment is focused toward developing water-based ink for its 3-D printing technology for use in …

… outputting corrugated packaging and textiles, building on the company’s existing water HP Latex Inks.

Jackowski also demonstrated the new HP Elite Dragonfly, the outgrowth of the company’s membership in the NextWave Plastics consortium. The HP Elite Dragonfly is its first PC built with recycled plastic recovered from in Haiti. Introduced last month, HP said the new laptop officially became available on Friday, Oct. 25.

As part of its Sustainability Impact Summit, HP also gave the delegation of approximately two-dozen analysts and journalists an extensive tour of plants operated by Sims Recycling Solutions in La Vergne, Tennessee, to demonstrate how ink cartridges, printers and PCs are recycled. Sims is HP’s primary recycling partner. During the two-hour tour of the Sims recycling plant, the company and HP officials demonstrated how ink cartridges, printers and PCs are disassembled, shredded and reformulated into reusable plastic.

Sims partnership with HP dates back to 1996. Ingrid Sinclair, Sims’ global president of recycling solutions, who led the tour of its plant, said that it also recycles materials from HP’s competitors with HP’s blessing, though indicated that HP is its most significant recycling partner.

“HP has been the OEM that has been the most dedicated to using plastic in its original form,” she said. “There are a lot of OEMs that talk about it, but HP is the one that’s actually worked with us for a really long time on this.”