Recycle your inkjet cartridge and help the
environment.
By Neil Craig
Out of the 60 million inkjet cartridges and 44
million toner cartridges used each year in the UK
alone, less than 8% are recylced leaving over 95
million of them being thrown away and ending up in
landfill sites.
Landfill sites contain over £100 million worth in
raw
materials from discarded printer cartridges alone.
These
cartridges contain precious oil resources (it can
take up to 6
pints (almost 3.5 litres) of oil to make just one
printer
cartridge), as well as cartridge ink, both worth a
fortune to
replace as new.
In less than one year, recycling cartridges in
Europe could
save more oil than the 11,000,000 gallons spilled by
the Exxon
Valdez oil tanker into Prince William Sound in
Alaska in
1989.
So how can you help?
* Refill and reuse your existing cartridges
Refilling your existing cartridges not only saves
you money but
the amount of natural resources that will be spared
is amazing.
Do you throw away your car when it's petrol tank
needs
refilled?
* Buy remanufactured inkjet and toner cartridges
Buying Remanufactured cartridges saves on the
enviromental and purchase cost of buying new. With
todays standard of
remanufactured cartridges so high, it is almost
impossible to
distinguish the quality brands such as Printrite
from the
original manufacturers own.
* Recycle your used inkjet cartridges and laser
toners
Collect and return your used inkjet cartridges to be
recycled –
with every returned cartridge a donation is made to
charity –
so you not only help the environment but also worthy
causes!
So what benefits does recycling my cartridge have?
* Slows down the depletion of the earths non
renewable
resources.
Oil is a non renewable natural resource and
refilling your
cartridges makes a significant contribution to its
conservation. Other materials in cartridges include
aluminium
and steel.
* Less non-biodegradable plastic and other material
is
disposed of.
The majority of discarded laser printer cartridges
are disposed
of in land fills. This amounts to about 10,000
tonnes of
material a year in the UK and takes over 1000 years
to
degrade.
* You save money!
Purchasing a refill kit or remanufactured cartridge
costs a
fraction of the original manufacturers selling
price. Also, by
sending cartridges to landfill, a landfill tax is
incurred
which is passed on to you, the consumer, through
Council Tax
or companies waste collection costs.
The future....
The pressure for the reduction of the amount of
waste disposed
of in landfill and increasing emphasis on
manufacturers
responsibility to consider and plan for the whole
life of a
product, including its eventual disposal, are both
current
issues in Britain and Europe. The WEEE (Waste
Electrical and
Electronic) directive is coming into force in
January 2006 and
it creates obligations on the supply chain in
respect of the
disposal of end of life equipment.
The reuse of inkjet and laser printer cartridges by
all
different means is likely to grow.
-----
Refill kits and remanufactured
cartridges
WEEE -
Waste Electrical and Electronic
About the Author
Neil Craig
neil@everythingink.co.uk
www.everythingink.co.uk
Inkjet Cartridges, Laser Toners, Refill Kits, Photo
Paper and all Printing Consumables
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