Recycle Your Ink and Toner Cartridges for a Greener World

I started saving my old inkjet cartridges a while back for my church youth group as they were collecting them to make some money (by recycling them). I put a grocery bag on my doorknob and whenever I changed an ink cartridge, I put the spent cartridge into the bag.

When the announcement came that we were supposed to turn in all the inkjet cartridges we had collected, I removed the bag of cartridges from the door . I was shocked by the number of ink cartridges in it . I looked inside and discovered I had three HP 78 color ink cartridges and five HP black ink cartridges. This was from a little over two months time. Since I have a home office, I do business out of my home, so I probably use more printer ink than most people , but it got me thinking about how ink and toner must be used just throughout the world . I hated to think that I had previously just thrown those old inkjet cartridges into the trash, just because I thought it would take too much time to do anything else. Now I  always buy recycled inexpensive Lexmark laser printer cartridges off the internet.

At the current time, bubble jet computer printers and copiers are a the devices we are stuck with . Nearly every home in America has some kind of printing device , and the most widely used ones use some type of replaceable ink container or toner . If everyone just throws those away, they go into our dumps and will stay there indefinitely, and will soon leak dangerous substances into the ground water .

So is there an easy way to recycle ink or toner cartridges responsibly? The most effective way is to find a local charity or church organization that recycles them. Suchorganizations earn a little bit of money for each ink cartridge , so you give them a small donation , and then they send them in to companies that specialize in refilling them and then retail them as refurbished ink cartridges. This saves everyone a lot of money and keeps the ink cartridges in the supply chain and out of our dumps .

If you're the kind who buys OEM inkjet cartridges like Kodak , Samsung  , Brother or Epson, make certain you do some due diligence prior to taking part in in their so-called recycling programs. Some investigators have determined that many of the big inkjet cartridge manufacturers streamline the process of returning your old cartridges back to them, but they do not recycle them. Instead they destroy the cartridges by incinerating them so that they won't be refurbished . This helps them sell more   newer, expensive cartridges . They make a greater profit that way. That's not very green - so make sure you investigate before you participate .

The amount you can save between brand name and recycled ink jet cartridges is significant. My mother's inkjet printer took the HP 78 color cartridge. I could have ordered a new OEM cartridge for $40 or so somewhere between $35 and $40 . Instead I got her a HP 78 recycled cartridge for under 16 bucks . I saved a little money , a good cause got a donation and I helped help the environment. My wife's small business uses a Xerox Workcentre printer that has solid ink that is very expensive. By buying a remanufactured brand, it is possible to acquire the xeorox toner cartridges  for close to $40less per box. That's a savings of $275 a year in printing costs alone .

All those who own a printer of copier or whoever is in a position of purchasing printing consumables at their office should investigate how to take advantage of ink jet cartridge recycling. If everyone does their part, it can make a huge impact on our environment. Plus you will be increasing revenue. It does take a little extra time, but it is best for the planet.

This entry was posted on April 25, 2010 at 9:58 am and is filed under Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.