WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), the Voice of the Recycling Industry, today released a call for entries for the 2015 Design for Recycling (DFR) Award. The DFR Award is ISRI's highest award given annually to the most outstanding contribution to products designed with recycling in mind. It recognizes proactive steps made by manufacturers who have actively incorporated DFR principles into products and processes.
"When designing a product, manufacturers should be giving just as much of a priority to the product's ability to be recycled as manufacturers do cost, appearance, and other factors," said Robin Wiener, president of ISRI. "Effective recycling begins at the drawing board. ISRI is looking to reward companies, designers, and manufacturers with the mindset of producing products that can be recycled safely and with ease, thus benefiting both the environment and the economy."
ISRI began the award more than 25 years ago. Previous winners include Cascades Fine Papers Group, Coca-Cola Recycling Company, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and last year's winner Dell Inc.
To be eligible for ISRI's Design for Recycling Award, a product must be designed/redesigned and manufactured to:
- Contain the maximum amount of materials that are recyclable.
- Be easily recycled through current or newly designed recycling processes and procedures.
- Be cost effective to recycle whereby the cost to recycle does not exceed the value of its recycled materials.
- Be free of hazardous materials that are not recyclable or impede the recycling process.
- Minimizes the time and cost involved to recycle the product.
- Reduce the use of raw materials by including recycled materials and/or components.
- Have a net gain in the overall recyclability of the product while reducing the overall negative impact on the environment.
Interested parties can enter online (http://www.isri.org/about-isri/awards/design-for-recycling#.VBhMQmOTq33) before the January 31, 2015 deadline. The winner will be announced at the ISRI 2015 Convention and Exposition to be held April 21-25 in Vancouver, Canada.
Last year's winner, Dell Inc.'s Dell Latitude 10 and XPS 10 tablets, and its Latitude E7240 laptop were designed with recycling in mind. Dell accomplished this by striving for modularity in design, clear labeling of parts for identification, minimal used of glues/adhesives, and convenient disassembly guides. The company's use of recycled materials, including nearly 8 million pounds of recycled-content plastic in its desktops and monitors, sustainable bamboo and mushrooms for cushion material, and post-harvest wheat waste mixed with recycled-content corrugate for boxes further adds to Dell's dedication to recycling from the very early stages of product creation.
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI) is the Voice of the Recycling Industry. ISRI represents more than 1,600 companies in 21 chapters nationwide that process, broker and industrially consume scrap commodities, including metals, paper, plastics, glass, rubber, electronics and textiles. With headquarters in Washington, DC, the Institute provides safety, education, advocacy, and compliance training, and promotes public awareness of the vital role recycling plays in the U.S. economy, global trade, the environment and sustainable development.