As a photographer, something that always crosses my mind is how to have the least impact on the environment while practicing my craft. From the chemicals in the darkroom to the tons of paper I go through to get the that one, perfect print, to all of those empty ink cartridges that people so freely toss into the garbage can. Yeah, there are companies who offer a recycling program for those empty ink cartridges, but let’s be honest here. Not a lot of people take the time to save them and send them back to the company, nor do they want to drive back to the store they got it from just to hand it in to them. And how about all of those photo labs and kiosks we see in the local drugstore? Where does all of that waste go?

That’s where Kodak comes into the picture. They’ve announced that they, along with Wal-Mart, will start to recycle all of the used materials made of PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) from their kiosks, including thermal printer spools, ribbon and cartridges. Now, as much as I can’t stand Wal-Mart, I will admit that I’ve found a little respect for them just for participating in this program. There are, so far, 4,100 Wal-Mart and Sams Club stores participating in the program, and there’s an expectancy of recycling 2,000,000 pounds of these materials (”approximately 6 - 250 passenger commercial airliners”).

Something else Kodak has been doing to benefit the environment, along with the help of other partners, since the early 90s is recycling disposable cameras, and so far, they’ve managed to recycle over 1 billion of them!

I never thought I’d say it, but in this case, it’s actually worth the trip to Wal-Mart.

You can read more about Kodak’s recycling programs here:
» Kodak Recycling Program

» Kodak One Time Use Camera Recycling Program