A lot less for the landfill

By Phoebe Sweet

Saturday, Aug. 4, 2007 | 7:42 a.m.

Order a foot-tall vase from a posh retailer and the delivery package is more likely to be the size of an armchair or an armoire than a petite piece of plaster.

But beneath the layers of cardboard, beyond the Styrofoam and inside the bubble wrap, is your vase.

Now imagine you've ordered 1,300 truck loads of vases, couches, end tables and chandeliers. That's a lot of packing peanuts.

This is the problem that twice a year faces the World Market Center, the downtown furniture convention center that attracts manufacturers, designers and retailers from around the world. Its week long summer market wrapped up Friday.

But unwrapping was the problem - 1,300 truck loads. They could count on refilling half of them with packing trash.

The problem has been addressed with on-site recycling equipment that has reduced the volume of landfill-headed trash from 650 truckloads to just 39 trash bins. The rest of the packing material is now bundled and compacted or, in the case of Styrofoam, melted into easy-to-ship shapes.

Recycling Styrofoam and cardboard boxes will save the World Market Center $300,000 on next year's trash bill, and the company says within two years the machines will literally pay for themselves with peanuts.