During the summer of 2004, Lori Moen – the Kent School District’s Resource Conservation Specialist at that time – received a call from one of her colleagues. After discovering 11 pallets of old Virco work surfaces and 20 pallets of chair shells that had been disassembled by students in a special resource recovery program, Moen’s colleague was inquiring about disposal options.

“Of course, I didn’t want to landfill these components,” Moen recalled, “so I started looking into the possibility of recycling them.”

Despite the Kent District’s location in the Seattle area, Moen wasn’t able to find a local recycler who would immediately accept the items she had to offer. Of the recyclers that responded to her inquiries – she contacted more than ten – all wanted to know what materials the components contained. Moen turned to Virco, where she not only found the answer but discovered a new solution.

“Once it became obvious that I needed to know what the furniture was made of, I emailed Virco,” said Moen. “And while I was at it, I thought I’d ask if they had a take-back program.”

Moen’s inquiry was directed to Don Curran, the Recycling, Resource Recovery and Grounds manager of Virco’s Conway Division facility in Arkansas. As the point person for Virco’s extensive recycling efforts in Conway, Curran informed Moen that Virco was actually in the process of exploring the viability of a take-back program. Several exchanges between Moen, Curran and the company’s corporate management led to the approval of a pilot Virco Take-Back project with Kent in September 2004.

Shortly after the project was authorized, the local Virco sales representative visited Kent Middle School, where the palletized components were being stored. Following his assessment, and subsequent communications between Moen and other Virco personnel, a plan was implemented to move the pallets to the Kent District warehouse where they could be more easily and safely prepared for shipment to Virco for recycling.

After many semesters of service, these Virco combo units were recycled through the company’s Take-Back program.

“We sent instructions for securing the pallets to the people in Kent,” said Don Curran. “They did a good job shrink-wrapping the components.”

In this context, Virco has put together an instructional PowerPoint program for future Take-Back projects that shows customers how to disassemble various Virco furniture items and palletize the components for shipment.

On October 28, 2004, a trailer picked up the pallets at the Kent District warehouse, and within a matter of days, delivered them to Virco’s Conway facility. Based on calculations provided by Moen, the load of recyclables weighed 8.17 tons and consisted of an estimated 111 cubic yards of material.

“We recycled everything that Kent gave us,” said Curran. “The buckets (chair shells) were sent to a vendor that reprocesses plastic to make railroad ties for Union Pacific. The pallets that held the recyclables were mixed into our own pallet supply and reused here in the Conway Division. Kent’s stretch wrap went to a company in north Arkansas that makes plastic lumber for patio decks. And the steel bands that secured some of the pallets were sent to our metal recycler.”

If you’re wondering what happened to the old desktops, Curran saved that – as the best part of his explanation – for last.

“Kent’s desktops were reground here in Conway, then used to make seats, backs and work surfaces for our new ZUMAfrd products,” he related. “That’s one of our take-back program’s main goals: to recycle old furniture components and include the reprocessed material in new Virco products.”

Virco’s pilot take-back project with the Kent School District was a “win-win” proposition for both parties, and Virco was able to move toward full implementation of its Take-Back Program while helping Kent Middle School and the Kent District divert 8.17 tons of material from a landfill.

“We were happy to participate in this take-back project,” said Hal Nourse, the district’s Supervisor of Contracting and Purchasing. “Kent School District is fully supportive of such efforts.”

For more information on Virco, visit www.virco.com.