Oriskany Company goes green with new motorcycle saddle bag design
Story Created:
Sep 8, 2008 at 4:22 PM EST
Story Updated:
Nov 16, 2008 at 8:43 PM EST
ORISKANY, N.Y. (WKTV) - A local company is making a green transition. Sumax, in Oriskany, has many noteworthy achievements - making fixtures for the Disney Store, fabricating the NBC Nightly News set, and the company was featured on American Chopper.
Now, Sumax is adding going green to its resume.
If you're a motorcycle enthusiast, you probably have one of these saddle bags. They are typically made using an open mold method. In translation - that's 20% wasted material!
Sumax, in Oriskany knew there was a better way and turned to a closed mold design.
"It's not so labor-intensive," said Kirk VanScoten, Sumax. "It's a better quality part - nothing goes into the landfill, so we don't have any waste at all."
"But the bigger advantage to that is you have 20% fewer cans of Resin, 20% fewer deliveries. you're saving energy," said Paul MacEnroe, of Mohawk Valley Applied Technology Corporation.
In addition to that, going green proved to be more efficient. The old operation shelled out one piece per day.
The new and improved method produces one piece per hour.
"The big factor is when you get calls back from the customers," VanScoten said. "They go 'wow.' It's the 'wow factor.' 'You gave me something that's made here in the United States, and it's made with pride and fits precisely. It works, it does everything you said it was going to do and it was a fair price.'"
And, it's not harming the environment! The only problem - New York State does not recognize green businesses when it comes to insurance coverage.
"The legislative process is a slow process as you know," MacEnroe said. "We are pushing it on some of the administrative levels, the DEC, the Pollution Prevention Institute and Council of New York State. We've brought the issue up to them as well."
MacEnroe says the more companies that go green, the easier the battle.
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