Non-profit organisation to provide remanufactured cartridges to state government agencies through its office supplies department, QCoffice.
Quality Connections, which provides support and employment services to people with disabilities or disadvantages, is to provide the State of Arizona’s government agencies with remanufactured toner cartridges and “other optional printer cartridges”, with the organisation estimating that the award is worth around $500,000 (€370,000) annually for state sales.
The cartridges are to be remanufactured and provided through the remanufacturing department (QCtoner) of Quality Connection’s office supplies department, QCoffice, which provides training and employment to disadvantaged individuals, including the conversion of empty toner cartridges into “useful products”. The department plans to provide permanent employment for between 20 and 24 individuals as well as providing on-the-job training opportunities for up to 15 people each month, reducing the need for and costs associated with public assistance for disabled persons in Arizona whilst also diverting e-waste from landfills.
Quality Connections was approved by Arizona’s Set-Aside Committee – a special purchasing mandate that aims to set-aside one percent of the state’s purchasing to certified non-profits that serve people with disabilities, in recognition of the organisation’s seven-year track record of providing the state and other customers with their cartridges. It is expected that the new contract will lead to the significant growth of QCoffice, with the organisation already awarded an exclusive contract in 2012 providing ink and toner cartridges to Coconino County.
Armando Bernasconi, CEO of Quality Connections, commented on the new contract: “We are excited to have been awarded Arizona’s first ever mandatory use set-aside contract. This will enable us to provide employment to over 20 individuals with disabilities while we provide a sustainable product to the state and its co-op members […] Everybody wins: the state, our clients, taxpayers and the environment.”
Christopher Keeler, Office Manager of QCoffice, added: “It gives our workers with disabilities a sense of independence and a sense of pride in their work. It enables them to be truly contributing members of our community and it improves the quality of life for them and their families.”