Work in Progress, Worklife, Workplace, TIME

January 30, 2008 11:33

Recycling magazines is excellent. Really

Posted by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen | Comments (9) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This

Just got this memo in my inbox from Time Inc.'s corporate leader, Ann Moore:

I want to share the details surrounding our newest sustainability initiative. ReMix (which stands for Recycling Magazines is Excellent) is a national public education campaign aimed at increasing residential recycling of magazines and catalogs. The campaign was created four years ago after a study by Time Inc. and Verso Paper showed that only 17% of magazines from the home were being recycled. The results revealed a huge opportunity to increase awareness for residential recycling. We partnered with the National Recycling Coalition, Verso Paper and Time Warner Cable to pilot the ReMix campaign in cities including Boston, Portland, Milwaukee and the DC Metro area. All four pilots were met with success.

I suffer from eco-anxiety thanks in part to working for a business that puts out 3.75 million copies of about 80 pages of stapled dead tree every week. Let's see. That's about 15 billion pages a year. Holy guacamole. That's a lot of landfill.

So this is a welcome initiative. What I want to know is: what the heck took so long? And where's the part where we print our magazines on recycled toilet paper or, better yet, go all digital? How about ordering some of our 3,000 employees to telecommute? That would a) relieve New York City of some pollution and congestion, b) save millions in office-upkeep costs, and c) generate much-needed revenue by freeing up our Rockefeller Center skyscraper for rental to the likes of Lehman Brothers.

Maybe I should write the next memo. I'd call it Truly Excellent Initiatives to Save Planet Earth and Also Magazines in General, or Teispeamg. Not as catchy, maybe, but I'm keeping it real.

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Reader Comments (9)

Rhea:

I have some of the same qualms about paper use. I have been a print journalist for years and years. I hate to think of the amount of garbage I've created.

Posted by Rhea | January 30, 2008 2:20 PM

Caryn:

Rhea and Lisa,

At least you guys put interesting things in print. I work for a national retail who, according to ForestEthics, generates over 425 million catalogs a year on, shall we say, way less than 100% recylced paper. Don't even get me started on what our diesel-powered service trucks are spewing into the atmosphere.

Posted by Caryn | January 30, 2008 3:23 PM

artist:

www.sundaram-art.com for Obama's portraits

Posted by artist | January 30, 2008 5:08 PM

workathome

And this involves only one of the thousands of major magazine publishers around the world. What a waste! It is a miracle that we still can breathe this air. My motto: "If you won't recycle, do not buy or subscribe" I'd vote for the all digital only initiative. onlinework

Posted by workathome | January 30, 2008 9:03 PM

Gerry

I'm all for recycling (regardless of what Penn and Teller say), but I won't give up reading print until someone creates a better digital alternative to computer monitors. Call me selfish, but I won't read my daily newspaper or weekly and monthly magazines hunched over a desk, blearied eyed from the screen. Don't even get me started on books.

Posted by Gerry | January 31, 2008 7:53 AM

italianmom:

No, please don't go digital! I read on the loo. In the bathtub. I stand by the stove, stirring my risotto and reading. The day we loose paper is the day I will stop reading. (Yes, I recycle).

Posted by italianmom | January 31, 2008 8:50 AM

Emily Starbuck Gerson

That's why I want a Kindle. It's small, portable, and looks like paper to your eyes, but it's digital. You can download and read all major newspapers and magazines on it. I haven't gotten one yet because they're so expensive and I've heard have a few bugs to work out, but I'm definitely buying the next version. I think it will be perfect for travel and commuting - instead of lugging around tons of mags, newspapers and books, you just carry the one tiny thing around.

Posted by Emily Starbuck Gerson | January 31, 2008 10:28 AM

Gerry

The Kindle is still too bulky. What we need is digital paper, basically a flexible screen that looks and reads like paper. There are some digital papers in development. We'll have to wait and see how useful and practical they are.

Posted by Gerry | January 31, 2008 11:03 AM

jmaroney:

We recycle 100% of the 30+ weekly and monthly periodicals we get as well as the 3 daily newspapers we read. Our 18 and 20 year old children, however, read almost all their news online - less because it's green, but more because that's their native environment. Whether we like it or not, our reading "fix" will increasingly be fulfilled via digital delivery as the convergence of environmental needs and millenial preferences progresses.

Posted by jmaroney | January 31, 2008 4:34 PM

About Work In Progress

Nina Subin

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen is a staff writer for TIME. She blogs about work. Why? Because TV was taken. Think of her as the grumpy colleague ranting by the water cooler.
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lisa_cullen at timemagazine.com