Why should you recycle ink cartridges? Well, there are many reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, it keeps them away from the landfills. Even though they are small, there are so many of them bought and thrown away every year that it does make a noticeable difference. For example, every year roughly 400 million ink jet cartridges are bought in the United States. Only a small portion of them, less than 25%, are recycled. That means that 300 million cartridges are thrown away every year, which adds about 60 million pounds of garbage to our landfills.
Since inkjet cartridges are made out of plastic they take hundreds of years to break down. If your community has curb side plastic recycling, then at the very least place your empty printer cartridges into the recycling bin.
That said, sometimes going the extra mile to recycle your lone ink cartridge just doesn't seem like a big deal. That is why there are now many incentives and ways to recycle that make it very easy. Most cartridge manufacturers, such as Hewlett-Packard, Canon, and Dell all offer free cartridge recycling programs. The postage is pre-paid, so you don't have to pay anything extra, and the shipping materials are either included in the new cartridge box or can be requested from their respective websites. All you need to do is put the cartridge, or cartridges, if you have several, in the free shipping box or envelope, print the label, and drop it off at your mailbox or with a courier service. Pretty easy, right?
That is not the only way to recycle, however, and many third-party companies now allow you to drop off your used cartridges. Office supply chains, such as Staples or Office Depot not only allow you drop off any empty ink cartridges at their stores, they will also offer incentives for you to do so. Stapes, for example, will give you $3 coupon for every HP, Lexmark, or Dell cartridge you recycle that you can use to get a discount on future cartridge purchases. Office Depot has a similar program for certain eligible brands and will also offer you $3 coupon to use for any purchase.
Another great way to recycle is by donating the proceeds to a charity or a cause. Staples, for example, has a program called Recycle for Education where they donate $3 to local schools for every recycled cartridge. There are also numerous organizations, such as Recycle 4 Charity that will accept empty cartridges and donate the proceeds to a charity. Recycle 4 Charity will donate the proceeds to a charity you choose from the list of charities they are in partnership with. If you are in UK, Homeless International is a great place to help the homeless in Asia, Africa, and Latin America by donating your used cartridges. There are numerous other organizations that have similar programs and you won't have any problems finding one that benefits the cause you wish to help.
Whichever road you choose, it's now easy and painless to recycle your ink cartridges and not only keep them out of landfills, but also get discounts or donate to a worthy charity.
john(at)findinkcartridges.com
As most of you probably know, recycling your printer ink and toner cartridges is one of the best ways to help protect the environment. Millions of empty cartridges go into our landfill each year polluting our planet. The leaking ink goes into our soil and these are toxic wastes that never goes away, and could eventually come back to haunt us or even worst...our next generation.
Many organizations had been setup to combat this problem and it's great! But did you know that these companies are making a fortune simply by collecting your empty cartridges. As you probably seen on the market, there are many "Remanufactured Ink and Toner Cartridges" being sold. These are basically refilled and reconditioned cartridges that are remanufactured using your empties.
Big environmental organizations collect these empty cartridges and then sort out the good condition ones before selling them to other printer cartridge manufacturers. Once these third party manufacturers receive these empties, they will start remanufacturing them before distributing them to the market. Now, these recycled inkjet and laser cartridges are not cheap, if you compare them to the new compatible brands.
Therefore, we can assume that third party manufacturers are willing to pay a decent sum of money to organizations that are collecting these empty plastics on their behalf. The simple truth is more and more companies are starting to look into this niche market in a way to profit, at the same time being recognized as an environmental supportive business. Big TV ads and other media campaigns are shown across the globe each day all asking people to recycle their printer cartridges.
You may recall seeing one recently yourself and thought what a great organization this is. Don't thank them yet, because you're actually giving these companies easy money. However, this doesn't mean you should stop throwing away your empties to supportive organizations. You are still doing the right thing recycling, at the same time helping the environment. It is also very important that we all remain this way.
What you should do however is look for organizations who can offer reasonable incentives for your empties. There are tons of them around and it's not unsual to find a cartridge collecting company that will pay you good dollars for your particular model. Let's face it, printer cartridges are expensive enough. Everyone wants to help the environment, but if companies are making a big profits from collecting our empties, why shouldn't we get something back for supporting them?
Both John Snyder & Mark Mason are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.