It’s estimated that 375 MILLION used ink and toner cartridges end up in U.S. landfills every year. That’s only in the U.S.! We can’t find stats for Canada, but you can bet that it’s comparable.
They are 100% recyclable and can either be refilled or renovated for reuse. There is no reason you can’t have as good performance or better from a refilled or re-manufactured printer cartridge.
Printer cartridge recycling has virtually become synonymous with successful sustainable development.
From the US Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise program information:
By using re-manufactured toner cartridges in printers and switching to a toner system for the fax machine, Applied Specialties, Inc. in Ohio saved $600 and eliminated 260 pounds of waste. E-mail and double-sided copies also saved the company $320 and decreased paper waste by 500 pounds.
Many programs have been implemented in the United States and Europe to encourage the recycling of ink cartridges. New York has a recycling law for businesses and consumers regarding toner and ink cartridges. In California the Public Contract Code (PCC) section 12156 encourages businesses to purchase recycled ink and toner cartridges.
Here are few facts about toner and ink cartridges and the impact they have on the environment.
Greenhouse gases emissions from manufacturing a single mono toner cartridge have been calculated to be approximately 4.8 kg CO2; per cartridge. This is for the cartridge only and excludes the toner inside. The Life Cycle Assessment of toner reveals that the GHG emissions are approximately 16 metric tons per 1 metric ton toner produced. On average a cartridge with a yield of 5000 pages contains 200 grams toner. This equals 3.2 kg CO2 emission per cartridge.
- Each year over 350 million cartridges are disposed of in landfills.
Almost all printer cartridges can either be refilled or re-manufactured. Using refilled or re-manufactured cartridges can reduce your running costs and help the environment by reducing the number of cartridges that go to landfill – every year millions of empty printer cartridges are needlessly thrown away.
- Here are a few good reasons why it is so important to “refill and re-use” rather than disposing of your cartridge:
Over 45 million cartridges go into landfill sites each year.
Each cartridge thrown into landfill can take up to 1000 years to decompose.
In just 12 months, cartridge recycling could save 15 million litres of oil.
* Source: Wikipedia, article on cartridge recycling.
