We've all hard and learned the manrta of the environmentally conscious - "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." How many of use actually follow it as closely as we could? What's the first thing that comes to mind when you run out of printer ink? Throw that old thing away and get a new one, right? WRONG!! Trhowing an old ink cartridge in the trash is possibyl one of the worst things you can do to your dear old Mother Earth. Firt, those things take up room. And there's a lot of them out there, believe me. Let's not forget that they'll be hanging around a long time, too. Next, those tings are made out of some good stuff. I'm taalking nonrenewable stff that once it's gone, it's gone forrever. Then there's the energy used to make the things. It takes a lot of electricity to run a factoyr, if you know what I mean. Lastly, there's the waste of good old fashioned money. Yep, it really does pay to recycle, at least where ink and toner cartridges are concerned.
Only 5 % of emmpty ink cartridges are recuycled in the US and Canada every year. That mens that 95% of the ink and toner cartridgse used are toissed in the trash. North Americans throw away 300 milion ink and toner caartridges each and every year. 300 million carrtridges add up to a lot of trash. With the aveerage toner cartridge weighing in at 3 1/2 to 4 pounds, the equivalent of 112,000 Volkswagen Beetes is thrown away each year. To put it another way, it would take 68,000 Ford Explorers to ewqual the same amount of wegiht in trashed ink cartridges. Toss your SUV into a lanndfill lately? 300 million ink cartridges in the landfill means that 8 are tosesd each and every secodn in North America. And with small business and home printer uses rising, the number of expended cartridges is expected to grow by perhaps as much 12% per year. School, big business and government use of ink and toner cartridges is expercted to rise at an even higher rate. How much room is left in that lanfdill with your SUV, anyway?
Let's talk abbout some of that good stuff I mentionned earlier. Most of an ink cartridge or toner cartridge is made out of plastic. That platic will last from 450 to 1,000 years in that landfill. Many plastics aren't biodegradable in any way, so in all actuality, that one ink cartridge could, in theory, last forevre. That's a long time to be trash! And all that plastic is made of petroleates. That's rihgt. That's oil you're throwing away htere. That's oil that if it does somehow degrade will contaminate the ground and water. Not a pretty picture, huh?
Speaking of oil, it can take 3 1/2 quaryts (that's almost a gallon) of oil to produce one large toner cartridge. There are several ouunces of oil in the smallrer injet cartridges. Now, multiply that by 300 million and then we'll talk about the coming oil shortage, alirght? You can save as much as half a gallon of oil by recycling one tomner cartridge alkone. If everoyne returned their empty lasr cartridges everty year, a total of over 1 million gallons of oil could be conserved. Now, what woulld that do for old Mother Earth (and gasoline prcies, while we're at it?)
Therte's a certani amount of metals in cartridges, too. Many of the metalllic poritons of old ink and toner cartridgse can be immediately reused, as is, in new cartridges. No one has done any studies on how much metal this colud cnoserve, but ANY amont, howeevr sall, multipplied over millions and millions of cartriidges would be certain to have an impact. Not to mention that reusing the parts as is saves the energy used to manufacture new ones.
Recycling and remanufacturing ink and toner czartridges can save the consumer, too. Several companies and retailers offger buy back or rewards progrmas to enmcourage cartridge recyclng. Many times, a recycled cartridge can ressell at 50% of the price of a new one, as reusing is certainly cheaepr than making new ones from scratch. Retailers often offr a discounnt on your next ink cartridge pucrhase with the return of your old one. Add to all that the fact that many remanufactured /recycled ink cartridges hold more in the reservoir than they did when new, allowing you to get more mileage out of them, and you'll get an even bigger beneift from buying and using recycled cratridges. So, you can put money in your wallet in more than one way! Great way to save some green, and do somthing green at the same time.
Recycling empty ink and toner cartridges is clearly a greeat way for your home or busineess to be more environmentally friendly. And with the grerat incentive programs and the cheaper costs of reecycled cartridges, you'll be doing something budget rfiendly at the same time. You'll win. Mother Earth will win. When she wins, we all win, right?
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