Becoming a zero waste to landfill facility in the USA

Disposing of waste into landfills is detrimental to the natural environment; waterbodies, land and the air. Conservation of natural resources is important for all future generations. It is estimated that over 390 million tons of waste was disposed into United States landfills in 1999 (http://www.zerowasteamerica.org). Today, in 2001, the situation is likely to be much worse. If this trend continues, we are likely to bury ourselves under a suffocating pile of landfill waste. In light of our Company's (Ricoh Electronics, Inc.) genuine concern to reduce this burden on the natural environment, we have embarked on a mission to discontinue disposing waste into landfills. Establishing such a system in the United States would be very difficult. The United States is a vast land with many landfills. Its culture is one of landfill disposal and not recycling. Despite this fact, Ricoh Electronics, Inc accomplished a culture change among its employees to achieve zero waste to landfill. As of March 2001, all eleven of Ricoh's North American manufacturing factories successfully established Zero Waste to Landfill Systems.