Can ink cartridges be recycled?

Customer involvement is vital to the remanufacturing process, and recycling keeps tons of plastic out of landfills ever year. By the way, some companies give out free mailers so you can return empty cartridges to them "for free." Don't give away that empty cartridge; many office supply retailers will "buy" empty ink cartridges by offering discount ink cartridges when you trade in the old one. If you do plan to recycle, take empty inkjet cartridges from the printer immediately, put them in a plastic bag with a small scrap of wet paper towel and recycle as soon as possible.

Sustainable industry - toner and ink cartridges

Printing, copying and faxing are common activities in the office environment. A major consumable from this activity is toner or ink cartridges. This has environmental implications for resource efficiency, toxic materials and waste generation.

Users of toner and ink cartridges who wish to help reduce these impacts can choose to take the actions recommended below.

1. Refer to ecolabels

Prefer products with a third-party audited life cycle ecolabel, or can show that they meet similar criteria. Choosing life cycle ecolabelled products ensures toxic components in toner and other ingredients is minimised.

2. Buy recycled

Prefer remanufactured cartridges with a performance guarantee, or new cartridges containing post-consumer recycled content.

3. Reduce your demand for printing by, for example:

* using electronic versions instead of paper copies
* setting fonts and margins to improve the efficiency of printing.

4. Reduce waste to landfill

Send your used toner cartridges to a recycling programme. (Take-back systems are offered through the major office supply companies as well as some office equipment suppliers.)

5. Prefer packaging which has recycled content and is recyclable.

How much ink is left in the cartridge?

Your printer tells you it's time to change the cartridge, but you dismiss the message and keep printing. Days or weeks later, you're still using the same cartridge and thinking to yourself that rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated.

Many manufacturer-branded (OEM) and third-party (aftermarket) vendor cartridges leave a startling amount of ink unused when they read empty. In fact, some inkjet printers force users to replace black ink cartridges when the cartridge is nearly half full. When using ink of their own manufacturer's cartridges, the printers display several low-ink warning messages before finally shutting down due to low ink.

There are valid reasons for not draining an ink cartridge completely, printing experts say. Many inks, if they run dry, can cause significant damage to the printer. You always want to leave a buffer in the tank so that the printer never runs dry. There should always be a factor of safety included.

Buying Brand Name vs. Compatible Ink Cartridges

You may find that purchasing new brand name ink cartridges for your printer quickly becomes very costly, but there are alternative ways to get the same quality standard for a lower price.
Your primary options are: brand name (OEM) cartridges, compatible cartridges or remanufactured cartridges.

Brand Name Cartridges

Most of the printer manufacturers make the replacement printer cartridges that are best suited for their printers. This is the most expensive option, and in some cases the only option if you purchase a newer printer whose manufacturer embedded computer chips inside the ink cartridge.

Compatible Cartridges

Compatible ink cartridges are specially manufactured to meet OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) specifications. They usually set very high standards of quality and reliability and offer high quality printing results, often exceeding the quality specification set by the OEM. These cartridges are manufactured with brand new components and are an economical alternative to expensive brand name cartridges.

You may also be pleasantly surprised to notice that the compatible cartridge will print as many or more pages than your original OEM cartridge. This mainly happens because some original OEM ink cartridges were not filled to capacity. In this case a compatible inkjet cartridge may give you double advantage: it can reduce your cost per cartridge and reduce your cost per page by printing more pages.

Remanufactured Cartridges

As the name suggests remanufactured cartridges are rebuilt from used empty cartridges. The remanufacturing process is not just about refilling the cartridges; they are taken apart, repaired, new parts are used if needed, and than they are refilled with ink.

High quality standards are maintained during the remanufacturing process so that the quality of the ink and any replaced part is the same as the original equipment manufacturer's (OEM) quality. If processed correctly, remanufactured cartridges have the ability to meet or exceed OEM specifications.