Environdent.com

A little over a month ago, Hu-Friedy made dentistry’s longest running recycling program even greener with the launch of Environdent.com. Since 1995, the program has offered customers one free dental instrument for every twelve old, broken or dull instruments they submit – regardless of brand. Instead of being sent to landfills as waste, instruments are sent to metal scrap recyclers who use them for non-medical applications. To date, more than 2.3 million instruments have been recycled through the program.

Prior to the launch of Environdent.com, customers participated in the program by mailing in a paper form along with the instruments they were recycling. Once the forms were received, there were a number of manual steps to be performed for processing and shipping. Now that the program has gone digital, the whole process is much more efficient and eco-friendly, not only for those submitting their old instruments, but also for the Hu-Friedy team in charge of processing the transactions and their recycling partners in the U.S. and Canada.

Here’s how it works:

1. Customers gather their old, damaged or unwanted instruments.
2. They ship their instruments to Hu-Friedy’s recyclers for responsible disposal.
3. Finally, they receive brand new Hu-Friedy instruments of their choice for participation.

This new process not only cuts down on transaction time – it also eliminates the handwritten forms, allowing for a paperless solution to instrument recycling. Participating in this program is really something you’ll feel good about.

For more information on Environdent, call 1-800-HU-FRIEDY or visit www.environdent.com.

About Post Author

Mike Smurr

Mike Smurr is the <a href="https://www.pattersondental.com/">Patterson Dental</a> Director of Marketing, Merchandise. Mike began his career with Patterson in 2000, as Milwaukee Branch manager, and held that position until December 2008. During this time, the branch earned Branch of the Year honors twice (fiscal 2001 and fiscal 2003), as well as the Chuck Lottes Award in fiscal 2004 for largest dollar increase in net income over prior year. Mike began his dental career in 1982 as a territory manager for Columbus Dental, serving northern Illinois and Wisconsin. In 1986, he became a marketing manager with Columbus Dental, and was instrumental in transitioning product lines when the company was purchased by Bayer Dental (now Heraeus). From 1989-1990 Mike worked in Germany with the International Marketing team of Bayer Dental. Upon returning to the U.S., he held positions of increasing responsibility, from key account manager to national sales manager. In 1998, Mike became the dental marketing director for Banta Healthcare Products (now TIDI Products), where he advanced to vice president of sales and marketing, responsible for the dental, medical and foodservice business. In his current role as Director of Marketing, Merchandise, Mike is responsible for the marketing interactions between Patterson Dental and the over 800 manufacturers with whom Patterson works. This includes marketing communications, product submissions, promotional and introductory product campaigns and private label business.