Printer’s shop Janetschek GmbH

Even the most environment-friendly printer’s shop (and to whom might this term apply, if not to Janetschek GmbH) produce a large quantitiy of various kinds of waste in the course of printing processes. Used paper, wood and hard fibre boards, bright colourful paint cans and much more was found by the consulting team of KOMUNITAS OG, but also the wish was expressed to develop new products out of waste material. Some rounds of brainstorming and deliberation gave rise to some ideas, which now shall be implemented by social enterprises.

As the first consultation talks showed, the Janetschek company gave special attention to reuse and upcycling, respectively of occurring waste material. The concrete and rather long-term occasion is the 100 year anniversary in 2012, which shall be commemorated in a large celebration. For this event, according to the wish of Manfred Ergott and his team, there should be one or more upcycled products made of waste material of this company, which might be used as give-away. Mainly cardboard and paper, empty paint cans (approx. 200 pcs a week), and wood and hard fibre boards (as packaging material of printing plates) were found in the business consultation as waste material, which might be reprocessed.

Independent of the project of “Social Production”, the Janetschek company is already active in some activities with social enterprises. Such sometimes orders are placed with regional social institutions. Furthermore, the Vienna Upcycling Design Enterprise Gabarage receive waste of cardboards, and process them into creative packaging.

The consulting team of KOMUNITAS OG came up with a large number of ideas in a creative process in the following weeks, and some have been pursued.

As they had successful experience in this field, the idea of reprocessing thick waste paper (for instance dated art calendars) into wrappings was close at hand. Concretely, two ideas are pursued, namely the production of cartons out of waste paper for business cards, which are permanently produced, as well as the use of hand-made envelopes, especially for the invitation to the anniversary celebration. An enquiry about production was made with the mill-yard of the “Confidence” association at Vitis, and they expressed their interest in this work.

Concerning the remaining waste material, finally a preliminary design for a flower cache-pot (made of paint cans from the enterprise) with butterfly picks to be inserted (made of waste wood boards from the enterprise) was made, which shall be produced in a social enterprise and in addition be painted or designed artistically. In this context, also a painting competition for a local school was suggested.

The participation in the project of “Social Production” offered us the possibility to start a consideration process triggered from outside, which otherwise would not have taken place. Although we have cooperated with various social projects for years, this project affords new creative solutions for reprocessing of waste material. The result becomes even more valuable for us, because in implementation there is an additional benefit for a social institution, besides the ecological benefit.”

Manfred Ergott (Management of Marketing & Sales)