Kyocera Wins Award from CalRecycle

Kyocera Communications Inc., a San Diego-based provider of Kyocera- and Sanyo-branded wireless phones in the Americas, has received a 2011 Waste Reduction Award from the California Department of Resource Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle).

It is the ninth year that Kyocera has been recognized by California’s Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) for its recycling and environmentally friendly business practices.

In a statement, the company says it has received more environmental awards than any other San Diego company.

In 2010, Kyocera Communications recycled more than 43,596 pounds of paper, plastic, electronic and other material otherwise destined for landfills. Kyocera also sharply reduced its carbon footprint on its Sanyo-branded phones by shipping phones in bulk from overseas to a U.S. distributor, increasing phone counts per pallet from 240 to 3,600, the company says. The company’s offices also reduced electricity consumption by 13 percent and water consumption by 25 percent compared with 2009. Between cost avoidance and recycling revenue, the programs contributed more than $7 million to the company’s bottom line in 2010, accoding to Kyocera.

Kyocera’s San Diego-based wireless phone unit focuses on the following recycling efforts locally:

• Cell phone collection bins are placed in Kyocera facilities, along with a link on the company’s website telling consumers where they can recycle phones at no cost and can even direct any proceeds to their choice of several charitable organizations.
• Cardboard is collected from delivered items and is sent to a recycler. In 2010, employees recycled 10,365 pounds of cardboard.
• Paper is collected in offices, copy rooms and labs, while confidential and proprietary documents are collected and securely shredded. The operation recycled 2,414 pounds of mixed paper in 2010.
• In 2010, employees collected and recycled 5,814 pounds of miscellaneous electronic scrap from labs and offices.