Green Design

You’ve probably heard of Design for the Environment (DfE), Sustainable Product Design and Green Product Design. These synonymous terms fundamentally represent a proactive business approach to addressing environmental considerations in the earliest stages of the product development process to minimize negative environmental impacts throughout the product’s life cycle.Green product design can involve material selection, resource use, production requirements and planning for the final disposition of a product. Simply put, a methodology of “reduce-reuse-recycle” or dispose. It’s not the only methodology but one that must be integrated with a company’s product design process or philosophy. This is extremely important so that environmental parameters can be balanced with the traditional product attributes such as quality, producibility, and functionality.Green products should be designed so that they are easier to upgrade, disassemble, recycle and reuse than their conventional counterparts. Use of fewer materials and the ability to break down into replaceable modular components are hallmarks of Green product design.

As with any new business paradigms there are bound to be many who proclaim their adherence to the Green design. This “Greenwashing” requires the end user to do some research and start asking some tough questions. Questions asked should be whether the product has recycled content, how to dispose of the product at the end of its useful life, is the product truly sustainable through modular design to reduce the frequency of disposal and does the product use adhesives or other materials that may give off volatile organic compounds (VOCs)? * For more of these question visit Building Magazine’s article library: http://www.buildings.com/Articles/detail.asp?ArticleID=1435

Samson’s Green Philosophy

Samson provides reusable plastic carts (trolleys) for material handling as an alternative to plywood (or other wood product) and metal carts. The Samson Cart philosophy by its very nature eliminates plywood and metal waste and promotes the concepts of reduce-reuse-recycle. Even the Cart manufacturing process is an environmentally friendly alternative to plywood. Utilizing natural gas, the plastic manufacturing process is so energy efficient that it actually uses less fossil fuel per pound and emits significantly less airborne pollutants than laminated wood production. Samson Carts also saves our planet from emissions when considering landfill gas emissions.

If all of that isn’t enough, using Samson Carts significantly reduces diesel fuel emissions by reducing the number of trucks on the road when used by moving companies or when used as part of a “Returnable Shipping Container” program.

Sustainable Design

Samson Carts have an estimated life span of 15+ years during which 1 cart can potentially eliminate 12 wooden carts (trolleys) from landfill waste. Given the amount of wood materials in landfills, Samson Carts can make a significant contribution to reducing solid waste production. Additionally Samson Carts are modular by design so that if a part is damaged it can be replaced quickly without glues or paints.

Recycle

Samson products are made from 100% recyclable plastic (HDPE). Broken or damaged carts can be returned to the factory where they are recycled and used in the production of new carts up to 10% recycled content. With its highly efficient recycling program Samson ensures that once a cart is produced its reuse capacity is almost infinite.

Every tree cut for the manufacture of plywood ultimately ends up as solid waste or is incinerated. Even if wood fiber does not reach the waste stream until it has been used several times due to efficient recycling, it does not solve the core problems of solid waste and natural resource preservation.

Cost Effective

Traditionally, environmentally friendly products have come with a cost disincentive. Samson Carts however are more cost effective to use than the alternative wooden or metal carts (See Financial Analysis- http://www.samsoncarts.com/pdf/Samson Carts Financial Analysis_m 803.pdf Using Samson Carts can actually save up to 104% off the life cycle cost of your equipment purchase and operations with fewer repairs, less labor and fewer truckloads.

Conclusion

Samson is the perfect example of an innovative concept that is cost-effective, more efficient and environmentally responsible. Plastic products have been used widely in Europe for over 35 years. Samson Carts has pioneered the concept in the USA. At Samson Carts we are committed not only to improving the material handling process but also to improving our world.

When you’re concerned about saving time, money and the Environment,