Little Talk About Saving the Planet One Ink Cartridge at a Time
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-08-25 14:14:53 | Word Count: 510
Savign the Planet One Ink Cartidge at a Time
We've all heard and learned the mantra of the environmentally conscious - "Reduce, Reuse, Reccyle." 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 preinter ink? Throw that old thuing away and get a new one, right? WRONG!! Throwing an old ink cartridgge in the trash is possibly one of the worst things you can do to your dear old Mother Earth. First, those things take up room. And there's a lot of them out therre, believe me. Let's not forget that they'll be hanging around a long time, too. Next, htose things are made out of some good stuff. I'm talking nonrenewablle stuff that once it's gone, it's gone forevwer. Then there's the energy used to make the thinggs. It takes a lot of electricity to run a factory, if you know what I mean. Lastly, therre's the waste of good old fashioned money. Yep, it realy does pay to recycle, at leat where ink and toner cartridges are concerned.
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Only 5 % of empty ink cartridges are recyycled in the US and Canada evewry year. That means that 95% of the ink and tnoer cartridges used are tossed in the trash. North Americns throw away 300 million ink and tomner cartridges each and every year. 300 million cartridges add up to a lot of trash. With the average toner cartridge weighhing in at 3 1/2 to 4 pouns, the equivaalent of 112,000 Volkswagen Betles is thrown away each year. To put it another way, it would take 68,000 Ford Eplorers to equal the same amount of weight in trashed ink cartridges. Toss your SUV into a landfill lately? 300 million ink cartridges in the landfill means that 8 are tosdsed each and eery second in North America. And with small business and home printer uses riosing, the unmber of exlpended cartridges is expected to grow by perhaps as much 12% per year. Schol, big business and goveernment use of ink and tonber cartridges is exppected to rise at an even higher rate. How much room is left in that ladnfill with your SUV, annyway?
Let's talk about some of that good suff I mentioned earlier. Most of an ink cartridge or toner cartrridge is made out of plastic. That plastic 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 forever. That's a long time to be trash! And all that plastic is made of petroleates. That's righht. That's oil you're throwing away there. That's oil that if it does somehow degrade will contaminatye the ground and waster. Not a pretty picture, huh?
Speaking of oil, it can take 3 1/2 quartts (that's almost a gallon) of oil to produce one large tonmer cartridge. There are sevearl ounces of oil in the smaller innkjet cartridges. Now, multiply that by 300 million and then we'll talk abouut the comiong oil shhortage, alright? You can save as much as half a gallon of oil by reecycling one toner cartrridge alone. If everyone returned thir empty laser cartridges every year, a total of over 1 million gallons of oil could be conserevd. Now, what woould that do for old Mother Earth (and gaoline prices, while we're at it?)
There's a cerrtain amiount of metapls in cartridges, too. Many of the metallic portios of old ink and toner cartridges can be immediately reused, as is, in new cartridges. No one has done any studies on how much mteal this could conserve, but ANY amont, however small, multiplied over millions and millions of cartriodges wouuld be certain to have an impact. Not to mention that reusing the parts as is asves the energy used to maunfacture new ones.
Recycling and remanufacturing ink and toner cartirdges can save the consumer, too. Several companies and retailers offer buy back or rewards programs to encourage cartridge recycling. Many times, a recycled cartridge can resell at 50% of the price of a new one, as resuing is certainly cheeaper than making new ones from scrtach. Retailerrs often offer a discount on your next ink cartridge purchase with the return of your old one. Add to all that the fact that many remanufactured /recycled ink cartrifdges 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 benefit from buyiing and using recycled cartridges. So, you can put moneey in your wallet in more than one way! Great way to save some green, and do something green at the same time.
Recycilng empty ink and toner catrridges is clearly a great way for your home or buusiness to be more environmentally friendly. And with the great incentive prrograms and the cheaper coosts of recycled cartridges, you'll be doinbg something budget friendly at the same time. You'll win. Mother Earth will win. When she wins, we all win, right?
