Taking on Staple Pollution
Most of us these days are sensitive to environmental concerns. Almost everyone recycles, some people have transitioned to hybrid cars, more and more solar panels are showing up on roofs in residential areas, and aerosol cans are becoming museum artifacts.
I try to do my part – I recycle; I turn lights off when I’m not in the room; I look for green products in the store whenever possible; I take bags to the grocery store with me; I’ve replaced most light bulbs in my house with energy-star rated ones; and when I’m done with a document, I turn it over and use the back as scratch paper.
But this morning I read a headline that made me look around my desk with mounting guilt: “Environmental company creates a staple-free stapler to avoid staple pollution.” Who knew! I use my stapler every day. Several times a day. But it never dawned on me that I was harming the environment with each click.
Apparently staples aren’t just bad for fingers (I’m sporting a nice hole at the moment from a particularly stubborn staple). According to the accompanying blurb, those thin metal strips are actually “planet killers.” And it turns out that they are so bad for the environment that a company has created a staple-free stapler that “cuts out tiny strips of paper and uses the strips to stitch up to five pieces of paper together.”
The enticing little contraptions come in an array of fun colors (think Skittles for your desk), a cool looking clear or an elegant silver, are environmentally friendly and safe for adults and kids (they had me at safe for adults!). And for companies with a green streak, you can even customize with a corporate logo.
Steph
Amanda
Cathy
toddkiraly
caro1anne
Matt
Brian
byezzi
I’m fascinated! How/why are staples bad for the environment and pollution?
Hey Ryan–I sort of forgot why we even wrote this, but here’s the skinny on staple pollution:
Staples are wasteful and have a huge carbon footprint. The most common type of office staple is made with galvanized steel – that’s steel that’s been re-heated and coated with a layer of zinc. As you can imagine, this double heating process is a pretty energy intensive task. From mining and transporting ore, to smelting and forming the staples one at a time from wire spools, staples gobble up energy at every step of their production and use. This energy use causes millions of tons of pollution.
Since staples are tiny, they rarely get recycled. In fact, they often increase the cost of recycling paper because they contaminate the recycling stream and can jam machinery. In paper recycling centers, the staples are pulled from the line by powerful magnets and screening filters, and then they’re thrown away as a recycling byproduct.