Herman Miller Honored with Design For Recycling Award

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI) recently honored the furniture manufacturer Herman Miller with its 2009 Design for Recycling Award, at ceremonies held during ISRI’s 2009 Convention and Exposition in Las Vegas, Nev. Accepting the award on behalf of Herman Miller was Paul Murray.

“Herman Miller is an exemplary company that personifies the Design for Recycling concept,” stated ISRI Chair George Adams, Jr., president of SA Recycling LLC of Anaheim, Calif. “This is a company that has embraced the concept of environmental stewardship for more than 85 years…with the company’s principals promoting recycling as a design point since the early 1970’s. Throughout the past forty years, Herman Miller has made it a mission to improve recyclability and reduce waste in the design and manufacture of its products. And it is one of the few manufacturing companies that recognize the value of recycling over cost as they do not allow a potential cost to recycle to weigh into their environmental decision-making process.”

For more than two decades, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. has promoted Design for Recycling, a voluntary program that encourages manufacturers to fully consider end-of-life recyclability in the earliest stages of product design. ISRI established the Design for Recycling award, to honor a program, company or individual whose product or program design has incorporated one or more of the following:

• A reduction in the number of different recyclable materials
• A reduction or elimination of hazardous constituents
• An increased yield of the product’s recyclables
• An improvement in the safety of recycling
• A design that allows for easy disassembly for recycling

This is the third Design for Recycling award given by ISRI. The Environmental Protection Agency was honored in 2006 for its overall leadership in creating innovative design partnerships, and its dedication to empower businesses and industry sectors to incorporate environmental considerations, along with performance and cost considerations, into decision-making processes. Computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard was honored in 2005 for its documented efforts to reduce the use of hazardous substances, to simplify component design, and to build computers and printing products for easy disassembly and recycling.