Earth Day is upon us! Established in 1970, the holiday aims to educate people around the globe about environmental issues. This year Earth Day falls on Monday, April 22, but did you know you can give back to the environment every day using your Star Micronics technology? Read on to learn about the many ways we strive to preserve the earth while supplying top notch point of sale (POS) solutions.
Star Printer Environmental Profiles
Star puts forth great consideration into manufacturing safe and environmentally friendly products. Each printer model has an Environmental Profile featuring information on its usage safety, hazardous chemical substances, ecology considerations, and more.
Paper Reduction
Paper usage is a receipt printer’s largest negative burden on the environment. Taking this fact into consideration, Star designed ways to reduce the severity of receipt paper’s ecological impact while maintaining user comfort and familiarity. Here are some examples of how:
- Reduced Top Margin: The top margin is the white space starting from the paper’s top edge down to the first line of printed text. In the past, typical receipt printers had top margins ranging from 11 to 15 mm, resulting in lots of unnecessary waste over time. Realizing this, Star defined the default top margin size of the TSP143III to 3 mm and made the feature available on other printer models in our lineup. The result? Conserving between 8 to 12 mm per receipt without any effort or adjustment from the retail shop or restaurant owner!
- Receipt Length and Width Compression: Many Star printers enable retailers to reduce the size of their receipts without requiring any modification to existing POS software. Store owners have the ability to compress receipts horizontally, vertically, or both ways, for maximum paper conservation. Reduction of both vertical and horizontal space can reduce receipt size by a total of 75% without compromising image quality.
- On-Demand Printing: Each day, cashiers provide receipts for small purchases, most of which are immediately discarded. The TSP143III addresses this wasteful situation by offering an intuitive option to print the receipt – or not – with no modification to existing POS software. Should the customer wish to not have the receipt printed, the cashier can simply hit the “No” button to skip the print job. The transaction data can then be automatically saved into a journal which allows the store or restaurant owner to browse past transactions, reprint receipts, and more. (Please note some countries ban transaction reprinting or logging, so this feature may not be available in your country should such a law exist).
- Digital Receipts: What better way to reduce paper waste than with digital receipts? With Star Micronics Cloud Services, end users may provide digitized receipts in a fast, free, and secure way using any Star receipt printer.
Energy Efficiency
Although the cost to power a receipt printer is quite small, business owners can still benefit from Star’s energy efficient solutions. By using a Star receipt printer, businesses can save on electricity and add to their green efforts without making a large investment or changing company operations.
Star is proud to be ENERGY STAR-qualified! An international standard for the promotion of energy efficiency, the ENERGY STAR qualification is a highly respected achievement for any product. In order for a product to obtain the qualification mark, it must meet strict energy requirements set by the government.
Sustainable Packaging
To further reduce negative impact on the environment, Star has adopted environmentally friendly packaging techniques, including:
- Recyclable Packaging: Every Star printer ships in a recyclable cardboard box which can be easily dismantled and folded. The TSP143III took this initiative a step further by featuring the removal of polystyrene and Styrofoam packaging. These components were replaced by the same recyclable cardboard (which protects products from damage just as well).
- Electronic Manuals: Star provides an electronic user manual on the installation CD included with most printer models. The manual, along with other documentation including setup sheets, installation guides, and FAQs, are available online for download.
Environmentally Friendly Manufacturing
Star continually monitors and conforms to international laws and standards, obtains certifications, and investigates new ways to make our products safe for people and the environment. Some environmental initiatives Star has taken include:
- ISO 14001 Conformity: Star’s main printer manufacturing locations conform to the ISO 14001 international standard.
- RoHS Compliance: All Star printers are RoHS (Restriction of use of Hazardous Substances) compliant. RoHS restricts the inclusion of certain hazardous substances in electronics manufacturing.
- WEEE Compliance: All Star printers have earned the WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) marking. WEEE mandates the proper disposal and recycling processes of electronics equipment.
- Environmental Activity Reporting: A yearly Environmental Report is published and posted on Star’s corporate website.
- Green Procurement Guide and Survey Issuance: Star created a Green Procurement Guide, which is distributed to all suppliers and enables Star to mandate and monitor the exclusion of particular materials during manufacturing processes.
- BPA–Free Paper Rolls: Star is proud to provide BPA-free, premium grade printer paper rolls. Authentic Star paper rolls are easily recognized by the Blue Core.
Recycling Practices
Star strives to be eco-friendly every step of the way and encourages its customers to follow local standards for recycling electronics. Please note the disposal process for desktop printers, portable printers and batteries varies from country to country. Please refer to the appropriate measures mandating the disposal method of the country in which your printer is used.
Encourage Others to Go Green
Last but not least, one of the best ways to “do your part” when it comes to improving the environment is to encourage others to do the same! Business owners can use PromoPRNT, a value-add tool that prints custom promotions on receipts, to encourage its customers to use reusable bags, recycling product packaging, and more.
Looking to learn more about Star Micronics’ environmentally friendly technology? Click here to browse Star’s hardware products.
