Reasons For Recycling Used Printer Cartridges

Most people have printers at home, making it a mandate for them to use printer cartridges which eventually runs out of ink and are tossed away for disposal!! Now that is a waste…

In today's time, when people take the initiative to recycle all sorts of things like Paper, plastics, metals, glass then why leavePrinter Cartridges behind. Used Printer Cartridges are an eco-friendly alternative as opposed to New Printer Cartridges.

Certain European regions have over 15,000 schools involved in recycling printer cartridges and other e-waste items. Recycling Programs generate income worth millions, if conducted in an appropriate manner.

Why should we remanufacture?

• Reduction in greenhouse gases, conservation of raw material, sustainable development, energy saving and money saving are just a few evident benefits of recycling. With each new cartridge being recycled we save on 3 ounces of oil and other raw materials along with emission of hazardous gases. 10,000 kg of aluminum, 1 million litres of oil & 40,000 kgs of plastic is saved when 100,000 cartridges are recycled.

• Used printer cartridges cost 60-80 percent less than the new ones. A figure that clearly states the cost and effort with which it was recycled as opposed to new printer cartridges. For a business, this means huge amount of savings and a lot of printing. To top that, a company is seen taking a step towards going green eventually leading to significant reduction in energy costs and carbon footprint, helping one and all.

• Collected printer cartridges are remanufactured and brought back to life in an eco-friendly manner. Infinite tons of metal and plastic is disposed in the landfills which takes them many generations to degrade. During this degradation process huge content of toxins seep through the ground and causes excessive damage to our natural resources embedded beneath the earth's surface causing them to deplete, putting our future generations in jeopardy.

Misconceptions

Recycled Printer Cartridges were thought to be unreliable after 1990s, when few Ink Cartridge remanufacturers started using a "drill & fill" approach to recycle cartridges which turned out to be poor qualitycartridges hence, defaming the remanufactured printer cartridges. Dismantle-clean-assemble, this is the technique used by most reputed companies. Used printer cartridgesprocessed in today's time, function at par or even better than new printer cartridges as long as they are offered by companies of repute implementing good quality control.

Did you know? i) A new printer cartridge takes about 4 Pounds of resources, a quantity which is saved when one printercartridge is recycled/ remanufactured. Picture this amount of resources being saved a million times. ii) A cartridge inside a landfill takes over 100s of years to decompose. Despite knowing the fact, 3 billion (approx.) cartridges are disposed into such landfills creating nearly 80,000 tons of trash. iii) Used Printer Cartridges bought at a lower cost – saves money, energy, is eco-friendly and is also as good or even better quality than the new printer cartridges. iv) For organizations, it is easier to start their own recycling programs/units in order to sell remanufactured cartridges.

Hence, as responsible citizens it is in our hands to save the Mother Earth from the appalling quantity of compost being bombarded into the environment.