Entry 1
September 19th, 2000
I started working at Staples. Ugh. This was one of the worst experiences of my life. It is always hard starting a new job. Everything was going fine for about a week or so until I found out that we did not recycle all of the paper in the copy center. I was also flabbergasted to discover that there was no recepticle for recycling cans or bottles. I had spent about an hour trying to find a can where I could dump my soda bottle into. I eventually gave up and decided to bring it home with me to recycle. Not a day has gone past now where I do not leave work without someone's can or bottle that they just were going to throw out...
Entry 2
April 22, 2001 (day after Earth Day!)
I had been busy with my environmental club in school over the year while I was still working at Staples. I had neglected that issue hoping that someone would wise up and put recycling cans in our store. Nothing happened. Big suprise. :)
At this point I had gotten fed up with all the crap I was taking at my job and I wanted to create a stir. I wrote and e-mail to Staples customer support complaining about the lack of recycling in store. Here's a copy of what I wrote:
|
Hello, I work at Staples 400 in Newton, NJ. I was wondering how I can contact the corporate offices through "snail" (or regular) mail. I have a comment/request. I would like to point out that the recent advertisements involving how Staples is proud to offer hundereds of recycled products is a very good campaign. However, I see a problem here. Why is Staples proud to offer these products when it does not recycle in the store? I don't know whether this is a corporate policy or local policy. It just happens to be that Staples 400 is actually in Hampton, but Newton, the neighboring town, does have a recycling center and does collect paper. This paper is what I am most concerned about. I see hundereds, and on a busy day thousands, of pieces of discarded paper just thrown away. As an environmentalist this pains me. I would love to see Staples sponsor a recycling program store wide or at least at Staples 400. Please forward this message to whomever needs to see it to make the decision to save our environment. By the way, Happy Earth Day! -Ryan April 22, 2001 |
Entry 3
April 25, 2001
I finally got a response from the Staples customer support. (I know it was only 3 days, but I'm impatient!)
Here's a copy of their vague reply:
| Dear Ryan: Thank you for contacting us. We at Staples feel that communication with our customers allows us to satisfy your home and office supply needs. Our Staples stores should have a recycling container in the copy center. If there isn't one, you may want to have your manager contact facilities so that the store can get one of the containers. If you want to write to someone, I would also contact facilites. You can address your letter: Attn: Facilities, Reg 12 Staples Inc. 500 Staples Dr. Framingham, MA 01702 I hope you had a great Earth Day!! Thank you again for your email. If you have any other comments or questions, feel free to contact us again. Sincerely, Staples Customer Relations Specialist #1409022 |
Entry 4
June 7, 2001
Taking the customer relations specialist's advice, I wrote to facilities and asked them to help me. I also took it into my own hands to contact most of the North New Jersey stores and ask them if they recycled their paper. All but two responses were "no."
Here's a copy of the letter I sent to facilities of Staples Corp.:
|
Attn: Facilities, Reg. 12 Staples Inc. 500 Staples Drive Framingham, MA 01702 Dear Sir or Madam: I am a current employee of Staples 400 in Newton, New Jersey. I am an avid environmentalist and feel guilty for working at a establishment that does not recycle the paper normally thrown out from the copy center. I recently wrote an e-mail to customer service and they had directed me to write to you here. I was looking for a way to find out whether we could obtain the bin for recycling that other stores seem to have. I spoke to my general manager and he said that they had talked about it once before and it had been too expensive to send it to the next town (a whole one minute drive) to be recycled. I am taking the initiative to write to you because I know if I left it up to him, it might never get done. Staples has been very good about selling recycled products but it does not recycle the huge amount of paper wasted by the inept customers who use the self-serve copiers. I see two or three bags of paper thrown out every day I work. This cannot be healthy for the environment. Besides the fact that it is wasteful, bleached paper also contains cancer-causing agents called dioxins. These dioxins cause the famous incident at Love Canal in upstate New York. Cans and bottles are also not recycled. We do have a vending machine for soda in the back of the store but there is no place to recycle them so they most likely get thrown out. This is such a waste and I would like to see this problem resolved. I did a recent survey of the local Staples stores in New Jersey. Stores in Newton (400), Randolph (35), Chester (577), Riverdale (923), Morristown (397), Parsippany (566), Wayne (216), Livingston (75), Madison (548), Totowa (12), Ramsey (567), West Orange (168), and Bloomfield (549) all said that they did not have the containers used for recycling that the customer service representative (Scott Nevins) said they should have and can get if only they contact this department. The Cedar Grove store (573) did say that they had a recycling bin used at the copy center. Also, while the Livingston location (75) said they did not have the receptacle, they did say that they had waste management which sorts the garbage and recycles all material that can be recycled. When I contacted Scott Nevins, he said that there should be receptacles in every Staples store. I found it to be quite the opposite. Please direct my letter to the correct department if this was sent to you in error. I would appreciate all information available and a quick and speedy response. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Ryan |
Entry 5
July 7, 2001
It has been one month and no reply from facilities. I was getting quite upset at this point and gave my two weeks notice at my job. They cajoled me into staying until the end of the summer and at that point I figured, "I'm gonna be here until the end of August, I might as well do something with my time here." That night, this site was born, a crude copy, but nevertheless, it was here and spreading my anger.
Entry 6
July 30, 2001
I'm updating the site, changing some basic format, fixing the petition, plus I submitted my request for http://www.thepetitionsite.com to create a petition on my behalf. Hopefully that will be up and running also.
I also created the "report a store" section.
Enjoy!
Entry 7
August 1, 2001
I just finished updating everything on the webpage, although I'm not to happy with the color scheme and the layout. Perhaps I'll have to go to one large table index.html... I dunno, I guess I'll play around with that after work tomorrow. I hope the people from http://www.thepetitionsite.com are impressed with my effort and will let me have my own petition on their site. Then I can add it in as a link. Also, maybe tomorrow night I can add a g-book and a counter. Hmm, so much to do, so little time after work. :) Oh well. It'll get there. G'night.
Entry 8
August 1, 2001
I sent another letter to staples customer service asking in more detail about the recycling program that Scott had spoken about. I asked them to give me reasons why a big corporation like Staples is neglecting one of its biggest responsibilites: recycling. Unfortunately, the mail was returned to me as undeliverable, so I went right back to the customer service sections of www.staples.com where I found a different link to the "other questions" section where I could mail them my letter. Hopefully, I'll get a reply on that one. I'll post it as soon as I can.
Also, the counter has been added, and maybe tonight I'll be able to fill in that empty space in the table on the main page with a link to guestbook. Now all I have to decide on is which free guestbook is the best... Hmmm.... Ah well, it's off to work for me -
Entry 9
August 1, 2001 (after work)
I got a reply from the staples customer support. It is totally trying to disperse my anger with them. Perhaps they should take another look at their policies. Here's a copy of their reply:
|
Dear Ryan, Thank you for your email. After reviewing our procedures regarding Recycling, this varies from store to store. In some stores the townships require the stores to recycle with separate bins. As we understand from Facilities, if there are no requirements for separate bins, all our garbage is sorted and recycled by the trash companies before it gets dumped. All of our stores do recycle all our bales which are the major source of paper trash. If you need further information you can contact our Facilities Department at the address listed below. Once again, thank you for emailing us. Staples Regional Office |
Entry 10
August 23rd, 2001
My last day of work!!! So now I can't get the inside info from Staples... Like I was getting any help from them anyway... In my resignation, I specifically stated that I was leaving, not just because I was leaving for college in two days, but because of Staples' recycling practices and their idiotic corporate policies that contradict each other. Erg, oh well. No more of either of that! I'm still fighting the good fight here, but no more on the inside. So, here I am - Yes. I hope this webpage can sustain itself for a while. Keep that petition going!
Entry 11
October 12th, 2001
Well, I know I haven't been really active on this site anymore. Reason being I'm in college and really bogged down with work. But I promise it's all for a good cause! I'm beginning to start an environmental club here on campus. It's been my dream to start one on ever since I heard it didn't exist. Yeah, they advertised for it, but I showed up and guess what! I was as flabbergasted as you! Student Action For the Earth was no where to be seen! Oh well, so I did something about it. Random note to all of you who read this, if any, if you ever thought about doing something, but was too lazy to do it or did not want to expend the energy to get out there and do it, use Nike's advice and "Just do it." It's worth it, I mean, I feel so much better now that I am actually doing something on campus. GO! Get out there! Do something!
Anyway, the petition is slow going, 571 signatures to date... They sent me a letter a while back telling me that if it didn't pick up speed, they would put it under revision. I dunno, I hope that doesn't happen. I could start it somewhere else - at another petition site. There are plenty. But what I need is publicity. I need real publicity. I submitted the url to all the possible search engines, but that just doesn't do it. Not too many people are searching for "Staples recycle" on google... lol... OH well. I now turn my attention to smaller things, I thought I could go for the big company. Perhaps my contempt for them diminishes with every passing day after I have worked for them. Ah well, maybe I just need to take a step back and look back at reality. Can one person with a goal and 571 signatures really change a companies mind especially when there would be a loss of money involved? I don't know, it depends on the people who are behind it. No, this is in no way a retraction of my goal, but I do have to step back and look at the reality. No more of this oblivion stuff. Oh well, I'll leave another entry later when I get more word on this petition. Thanks to all who signed!
Entry 12
June 10th, 2002
Talk about not updating in a while! Whew! I would first of all like to thank the anonymous person who finally took the time to call three stores locally to him/her. Thank you for doing that, if it wasn't for you, I would have probably let the petition run out, send it in like I promised, and then forget all about it later... But for now, I have a renewed sense of what this site can become. I hope to change some things around, perhaps add a newsletter if things start picking up again, and a better webforum.
THANKS AGAIN, ANONYMOUS! Check out the list for more info...