Before Recycling : A Simi Valley company is a pioneer in ‘remanufacturing’ by retooling laser printer cartridges.

Today’s column is about a kind of recycling that happens before recycling. It’s called “remanufacturing.�

We all know what a rebuilt carburetor is, right? Or a rebuilt auto engine. That’s when someone has taken the core of the thing, checked it out for worn or damaged elements, replaced those with new parts or working parts from somewhere else and created a rebuilt machine.

A lot of folks earn their living at this. It even goes on at AT&T;, when they give you the choice of a new or remanufactured rental phone. Sears, Roebuck and Co. has a line of remanufactured tools such as lawn mowers and power drills and saws--discounted and covered by warranty.

The largest remanufacturer in the world is the Defense Department, which does it with everything from rifles to radar to tanks and battleships.

The ramifications of this before-recycling concept are staggering.

“We need another name for it,� says Ralph Ramirez of Able Ribbon Technology in Simi Valley. “Everybody thinks about soda bottles and cans, and recycles at home. But they don’t have the same attitude elsewhere, like at work.�

He’s referring to the tendency we have to throw out stuff like $100 laser printer cartridges instead of sending them to be remanufactured. That’s the business he’s in, as you may have guessed. From his viewpoint, you and I are “producers�--of parts for his business. And he wants us to stop putting 33,000 of them in America’s landfills each day.

Ventura County is some kind of hotbed of activity when it comes to remanufacturing. In addition to the traditional automotive activity, we have several high-tech companies whose reach is nationwide.

Nearby in Simi Valley is Data Products Imaging Supplies Division, remanufacturers of laser printer cartridges. Their motto is: “Improve your Image. Protect the Environment. Save Money.�

This operation, which sells remanufactured cartridges throughout the nation and the Pacific Basin, is part of a company called Data Products Corp. that makes 10 kinds of printers. Because the company aggressively promotes the use of remanufactured cartridges, they have--almost single-handedly--turned around the image of remanufacturing in the high-tech world. No more “drill and fill.� Manager Bob Edwards said the new product could be used exclusively, replacing original, high-priced cartridges.

Maybe it’s similar to what happened with aluminum cans. Ninety percent are now recycled. With cans, it means melting down and restamping raw metal. With toner cassettes for offices, it means collecting, disassembling and putting them back together plus filling with toner.

Data Products technology asserts that once a cassette exists--all the originals are made in Asia--and is introduced into our system here, it need never be thrown away.

Also, here in Ventura there’s a nationally recognized market research firm that has looked into this new industry. Arthur Diamond of Diamond Research Corp. expects the dumping of cartridges into local landfills to be banned by state law. This is already the case in Germany.

It may be moot whether such a law passes. Already 15% of the originals are reused, according to Diamond. And the percentage is rising fast. The industry is so new that it organized its full-scale national trade and standards organization (International Cartridge Recycling Assn.) only this year.

Ralph Ramirez gets orders from across the nation and overseas. He stocks Data Products and two other brands of remanufactured cartridges. Another Data Products distributor in Torrance, Imaging Supplies Express, is in discussions to wholesale remanufactured cassettes back to Japan.

Tom White said, “It’s a precision instrument we can remanufacture cheaper than they can.� This conjures up the specter of a possible trade war wherein the product of our busy fingers is stopped at Yokohama Harbor because we’re undercutting them in price by recycling stuff they sent us in the first place.

Now you know why I was excited by Ralph Ramirez’s idea for consumers. When it comes to the new world of remanufacturing, we’re all producers. And our product is, almost, All-American.

* FYI

* Let me quote from a flyer going out nationwide from Ramirez’s company: “Call your ABLE LANDFILL RESCUE representative and make money while cleaning our landfills. Send us your empty laser printer cartridges and receive at least $5. USA (800) 548-3062 or Calif. (805) 522-2105.�

* Remanufactured power tools, mowers, etc., with full warranty are available at discounts of up to 60% at Sears stores in Simi Valley (531-1214) and Ventura (643-8661). Call for details.

* AT&T; leases remanufactured phone equipment. Call (818) 888-9586.