Many people don’t think twice when they buy a printer cartridge; their normal reaction is to thrown that old piece of plastic in the trash. But for you there is still hope. Let’s begin the education about this issue. Just like people will recycle old soda cans and glass bottles, the printer cartridges are easily recycled also. So many people who are in a hurry will just put their new cartridge into the printer and forget it. They will bypass the recycling path. However these are the options you have once you have a used cartridge in your hands, the environmental thing to do is firstly don’t throw it into the trash.
When you buy your replacement cartridge, almost always you will find a postage paid bag inside that is self addressed. For this all you need to do is place the cartridge into the bag and drop it into the mail. It will be returned to the company. Hewlett Packard, Dell, and many other major manufacturers already include these return bags. There are some companies, like Canon and Brother that allow you to go to a website, print the self mailing envelope that you will use. If you would rather not deal with mailing it in there are many retailers that allow you to drop them off to be recycled. Places like Office Depot and Staples allow for this and at times they will even offer a discount on products for you participating in this recycling program.
Another option is to give it away, but if you still own the printer, then there is a better way to go. I have saved the best for last. You can refill this old printer cartridge and use it again! This makes the most sense as the savings are huge. The refilling of cartridges is not something new it is common and you can find a place online that not only sell affordable replacement cartridges but the refill kits as well. Places like InkMart.com offer excellent prices and free shipping.
When you purchase the ink refill kit, you use the included syringe to inject ink into the different compartments of the cartridge. It can be messy, so you want to make sure that you do it in an appropriate place. All of them include gloves and simple instructions. It’s true that you will be able to top-off a used cartridge from 5 to 7 times, but just remember that the printer head is sensitive, and it can eventually fail due to clogging issues, overheating or under heating issues from use. Yes, sometimes you just have to breakdown and buy another cartridge.
If you have a laser toner printer it can be refilled, but the process is a little more difficult. Because most major manufacturers make lots of money on selling the complete replacement cartridges, they try to discourage the refilling of the laser printer cartridges. Getting the finely powdered toner inside can be a challenge and dangerous to your health if you are not properly trained in how to do it. Most kits in these type applications require you to drill a hole in the cartridge for toner access. This gives you some insight on how to handle a used cartridge, the refilling process isn’t too difficult and it will save you some money.
By Joyce Calloway for InkMart.com, Copyright 2009
