Virco Manufacturing Corporation is the largest manufacturer of educational furniture in the United States

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Virco Mfg. Corporation - Conwa= y

Virco Mfg. Corporati= on is the largest manufacturer of educational furniture in the United States. The company also makes tables, desks, chairs and storage equipment for offices, convention centers, churches and auditoriums. Virco employs approximately 1,100 = people and has manufacturing and distribution centers in Torrance, California, the company headquarters, and Conway, Arkansas.

The Conway facility has earned a place in the Environment= al Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2003 WasteWise Hall of Fame for large businesses. WasteWise, www.epa.gov/wastewise, is a free, voluntary EPA program open to all industry sectors through which businesses strive to eliminate costly municipal and industrial wastes. By reducing waste, businesses bene= fit their bottom line and many reduce their regulatory burden.

Over the last decade= , Virco’s Conway= plant has received numerous national and local= environmental awards. In 2002 the company w= as awarded the Keep America Beautiful National Award in the waste minimization category, and it qualified as an EPA WasteWise Partner of the Year for large businesses. The Arkansas chapter of the Sierra Club presented the Conway plant with the Sierra Club Woody Award in 1995= .

Don Curran, the Recy= cling Manager for Virco’s Conway facility, says the company began its environme= ntal efforts in 1989 with its War on Waste (WOW) program. In 1989, the company was using 660 gallons of oil per week. In 1= 990 the Conway facility built a filtering system to clean the= oil on site so the company could reuse the oil. In 1993, the company purchase= d two powder coat paint systems to replace a wet painting process. The facility later purchased anoth= er powder coat paint system, completely eliminating wet paint. The result was the elimination of = about 334 tons per year of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and the eliminat= ion of over 200,000 pounds of wet paint and solvents.

In 1991 the company = went from recycling only two items to eight.&nb= sp; Virco is now (2008) recycling 47 items. According to Curran, Virco’s recycling and waste prevention efforts have reduced the facility’s wa= ste stream to less than five percent. “A lot of times doing the right thing costs us money,” s= aid Curran, “but overall, the company comes out about a million dollars p= er year ahead, and it’s mostly from recycling.”<= /p>

In 2008, Virco devel= oped a Take Back Program. This progr= am encourages the company’s customers to return any and all furniture ma= de by the company rather than sending it to a landfill. The customer disassembles the furni= ture into its component parts and sends it to Virco. The parts are either recycled or r= eused by the company to make new furniture.

As a result of the T= ake Back Program, Virco has a new line of furniture that incorporates post-consumer materials in the manufacturing process.&nb= sp; This furniture is made with a frame of post-consumer steel and inclu= des a chair that is 100% recyclable.

Currently, Virco rec= ycles more than:

§2 million = pounds of cardboard and paper per year

§500,000 po= unds of plastics per year

§15,000 pou= nds of foam upholstery material per year

§22 million pounds of particleboard annually

§7 million = pounds of steel per year

Virco is an active p= artner in the Conway= community.&nb= sp; In 1993 Virco and a local school teacher started a cardboard recycli= ng program at a city school to raise money to send kids to Space Camp. Virco volunteered to collect, bale= , and sell the cardboard for the school, all free of charge. The Cash for Cardboard project was= a success. Today, Virco is coll= ecting, baling and selling cardboard from 35 area schools and 9 businesses within <= /span>Faulkner County, all free of charge, to benefit the local schools. The school cardboard program has g= enerated about $80,000 so far. Virco h= as also partnered with the Arkansas Human Development Center in Co= nway. Virco collects cardboard bales from the Center, sells it, and returns the money to the Center.

The company also don= ates its white paper to a developmental disabilities program. The program keeps all the money generated from the sale of the paper.

In 1997, Virco built= a new 1.2 million square-foot facility on a 100 acre site. The company hired a professional t= ree mover and transplanted 96 trees from the building site to public school grounds. “The schools h= ad instant shade,” said Curran. Virco also planted about 20,000 trees on its factory site, leaving o= nly four acres to mow. “We = only mow on low ozone days,” Curran added. The factory landscaping is compose= d of drought resistant plants and grasses, eliminating the need to water during = the summer. Damaged wooden pallet= s are ground up and used for mulch. In addition, five acres of wetlands were crea= ted on the site when only one acre of wetlands was taken.

The information in t= his article was furnished by the Virco Mfg. Corporation. For more information, contact Don Curran, Recycling Manager, at 501-329-2901, ext. 12244.