Star Bulk and Kairiki are pleased to announce the results of a four-year initiative joint effort to reduce plastic waste from their printer operations. Star Bulk is a leading global US listed dry bulk carrier company which owns and manages a diverse fleet of 128 dry bulk vessels built in world-class shipyards with an aggregate capacity of more than 14 million DWT.
Kairiki is an innovative international IT business servicing the maritime industry including Star Bulk’s fleet. Both companies have been deeply concerned by the impact of various environmental issues and being frontrunners on corporate responsibility, they have implemented several targeted environmentally focused measures.
The use of printers on board vessels and the generation of subsequent waste have long been of concern to responsible companies in the maritime industry. This coupled along with voltage variances between ships, costly ink wastage due to printer break downs, regional differences in ink cartridges as well as the man-hours required to procure them, have only worked towards compounding the problem. Having identified these issues, Star Bulk searched for a solution.
Thus in 2017 Star Bulk and Kairiki joined forces to remedy these problems and a significant reduction in waste was achieved using Kairiki’s services. The Kairiki printer service provides high quality printers, associated equipment and consumables. In addition, Kairiki offers a fixed price subscription service aimed specifically at addressing the needs of merchant vessels.
Moreover, Kairiki maintains extensive stock of its printers, equipment and supplies at major ports throughout the world. Doing so, ensures an easily available consistent supply of ink and the timely provision of replacement printers in the event of a breakdown. As of January 2022, these features coupled with free remote technical support have allowed Kairiki to expand its worldwide service to 1635 merchant ships.
In line with their sustainability strategy Starbulk, and Kairiki calculated and compared the amount of plastic wastes before and after collaborating with Kairiki printer service. An analysis of the period from 2018 to 2021, being the time Kairiki’s printer service was introduced to all ships, showed a reduction of 2,382 kg of plastic waste. This figure includes 2,058 kg of ink cartridges and 324 kg of plastic waste from the printers which was avoided by repairing the malfunctioned printers instead of disposing/replacing them by Kairiki’s remote technical support team.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the average number of ink cartridges saved equate to 388 cartridges per ship/year and the number saved over a 4 year period in total exceeded 156,000 cartridges. Starbulk’s sustainability leadership coupled with Kairiki’s innovative supply chain and support network, not only identify these companies as industry leaders but also demonstrate a clear commitment to minimizing waste and achieving a sustainable environment.
