Printer cartridges can be recycled
August 2, 2010
It is always difficult to train a planet of 6.8 billion people accustomed to a throw away society to reduce and reuse, but one of the simplest and easiest green strategies that can be enforced almost anywhere in the world is to have your empty printer cartridges refilled or remanufactured.
Inkjet printers have become ubiquitous in businesses and homes around the world. They offer various advantages over other types of computer printers such as lasers. They are cheaper to purchase and can generate high quality printing with some models and special paper stocks can simulate the appearance of a high quality photographic print.
The problem is that the inkjet cartridges which fit into each printer and spray a fine jet of colored ink onto the pages do not last long . Most people merely toss the cartridge into the rubbish bin and buy a new one. The re-education process which has to be executed is one to convince these inkjet owners to stop before they throw that valuable inkjet cartridge away and either have it refilled or sent off for remanufacturing.
Refilling the ink cartridge is quite straightforward, but sometimes a little messy . There are many kits on the market which allow you to bring the ink cartridges back up to full with a simple syringe-type mechanism. There are some cheap clones of the quality brands on the market, so ensure that you are buying a refill kit from an acknowledged major manufacturer. A poor quality refill kit, will include poor quality in, and the printed results will also be poor .
Another option is to trade in the printer cartridges at one of the many inkjet specialty retailers. It’s likely that there is one at your nearest shopping plaza, or refer to the Yellow Pages under “Inkjet Cartridges“, “Printing Supplies”, or “Computer Supplies and Accessories.”
These companies will take in your empty inkjet cartridge for refurbishment and provide a successor there and then , usually at a lower price than a new original.
Disposed inkjet cartridges pose a worldwide waste problem. The materials within the cartridges do not easily lend themselves to recycling and if placed into landfill will take hundreds of years to decompose. Over 400 million cartridges go into North American landfill sites every year, a rate of more than a million a day. If all the cartridges that end up in North American landfills each 48 hours were laid in a line they would stretch around the world at the equator.
The cartridge bodies are composed of petroleum-based plastics, thus 100% compliance with inkjet cartridge remanufacturing and refilling would be responsible for avoiding the consumption of 35 million gallons of oil every year in North America alone. The worldwide consumption is several times that total.
Most ink cartridges on the market are refillable in some way or another, however the oem brands will always try to make you buy genuine new cartridges. This is more about financial greed than saving the world .
