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- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 4
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- Last year, after we selected Endangered Earth as Planet of
- the Year, we received scores of letters from readers asking
- what we as a company were doing for the environment. The answer
- is that after studying alternatives and talking with the
- Council on the Environment of New York City, the Time Inc.
- Magazine Co. has started its own recycling program for bottles,
- cans and paper. Throughout the Time & Life Building in New York
- City, staff members are chipping in to help make our
- environment a cleaner, more enjoyable place.
-
- One of the most inspiring features of the program is that
- individuals are volunteering their labor. From coordinator
- Eileen Wolmer, a purchasing agent for the Time Inc. Magazine
- Co., to the 33 floor captains in charge of educating their
- colleagues about recycling, to the cleaning crews who dispose
- of the trash, no one is being paid extra for helping out.
-
- Our recycling effort includes high-grade paper, glass
- bottles and aluminum cans. Employees place their discarded
- paper into durable gray folders on their desks. When the
- folders are full, staffers empty them into special bins located
- on each floor. Bottles and cans are deposited in separate
- containers. The proceeds from the recycled paper will help
- defray the program's costs, and the money earned from the cans
- and bottles goes to We Can, an organization that helps the
- homeless.
-
- "The response has been terrific," Wolmer says. "The first
- week we found a lot of other garbage in the bins, but by the
- second week, everyone seemed to understand how to separate
- trash." Wolmer hopes to include newspapers; at the moment,
- however, most recycling plants in New York City cannot handle
- more newsprint. Magazines pose a different problem. In printing
- TIME, we cannot currently use stock that contains more than 7%
- recycled paper; anything more and our high-speed printers would
- shred the magazine to pieces. However, as recycling technology
- improves, we aim to increase that percentage.
-
- We are also recycling what we learn: several firms in
- Manhattan have already called Wolmer to find out how to start
- their own programs. They will discover, as we did, that the
- campaign requires only a little extra effort, but the results
- are well worth it.
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- -- Louis A. Weil III
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