Organic garden, recycled plastic among Corvallis site's efforts

By Matt Neznanski

Gazette-Times reporter

Sitting right between two office buildings doing arguably some of the most technical work in the mid-valley, one wouldn't expect to find a thriving organic garden.

But that's just what employees at Hewlett-Packard's Corvallis site are tending to.

"It's a nice break," said development engineer Tom Novet. "If I get frustrated on a problem, I can spend five or 10 minutes out here and clear my head."

HP's Corvallis site last week was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency as an exemplary environmental steward for making efforts, both internally and externally, to go above and beyond legal requirements for protecting the environment.

It's things like the garden, which emerged as an employee request, as well as company-wide policies for reducing waste and re-using materials - some of which were spawned here - that stand behind the distinction.

This is the only HP site and the only company in the nation recognized for the EPA award, said Marcy Eastham, the company's northwest regional government affairs manager.

Employees at the Corvallis site get things done. They came to management with a plan for turning what was a bare spot of ground into a community garden.

"People came to us and said they'd really like a garden in that spot because they didn't have space at home or whatever," Eastham said.

So starting this year about 160 8- by 10-foot plots were leased for $10 per season to employees who grow crops using organic gardening principles.

The Corvallis site has reduced the total amount of electricity use by 6 percent, accounting for 9.7 million megawatt-hours, and invests in 4.2 million megawatt-hours of renewable energy per year.

And the Corvallis site's environmental reach stretches company-wide.

Engineer Dean Miller and supplies manager Tom Frederick, both based in Corvallis, spearheaded an effort to develop a closed-loop system for inkjet supplies.

The technique combines different types of plastics - from water bottles to used inkjet cartridges - into a stable, reliable kind of plastic that is suitable for a number of technical applications, especially more inkjet cartridges.

After five years of development, the recycled plastic now comprises between 70 and 100 percent of the total material in new cartridges, and more than 200 million cartridges have been manufactured using the process.

Last year, HP used more than 5 million pounds of recycled plastic in its inkjet cartridges. The company hopes to double that amount this year.

"This site's been all about the environment since we started," Eastham said.

Matt Neznanski can be reached at 758-9518 or matt.neznanski@lee.net.