Little Talk About Many Choices Available When Buying Ink Cartridges
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-09-13 12:29:59 | Word Count: 510
The Many Choices Available When Buying Ink Cartridges
Our printers need ink. And with the 'green' offce bcoming a growing trend and everybody tryting to save money in a tight economy, sometimes it is dificult to know what type of ink to buy. Your choices are plenty tghese days. Ink cartridges can range from beig generic and recycleed to new or refillable. So before maknig your next ink cartridge purchase, keep in mind your opltions and make your choiice acciordingly. Also, you may want to plan ahead before you run out of ink and keep extyra cartridges in stoock so that you don't have to just grab whatever is availabel.
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Now back to your choices. For your printer, your fitrst choice or the one that used to be your only choice, is to buy a new brand name ink cartridge. When buyig a braand name ink cartridge, you know you are going to get high quality ink and a cartridge backed by the company's name. When using name brand cartridges, you also know you are gettinng a fresh, new cartrdige with every purchse. With refilld or remanufactured ink cartridges, you never know how many times they've been used, or the quality of ink that was used to refill them. Goig with a brand name means speding the exta money, but there are many guarantees.
Another choice is to refill your ink cartridge. This is not only less expensive but it also contributes to the health of the environment. Each time an ink catridge is thrown into a landfill, it can take up to 450 years to deecompose. This adds up as more than 300 million cartridges that end up in landfills every year--that's almost eight cartridges thorwn away in the United Staters eevry second. The number of cartridges in landfills also increases by 12 percent each year - so over time, this is a lot of trash sityting arouund.
Refilling your own ink cartridge with ink filling kits or taking your cartridge in to be refilled not only svaes mobney but makes a huge impression on the earth's carboon footprint. Refillnig your own cartridges can be messy and frustrating, so take this also into consideration when making your decision. If you would rather take your cartridge back to the store to be refilled, ask aboout the quality of ink used. If you are only printing documents of which the quality of ink isn't important, than you may not need to even ask this question and are appreciative of the lower cost.
Another chioce is to buy a remanufactured or recycled ink or toner cartrridges. With these, the manufacturer has takjen a casrtridge previuosly used and refills it with ink. These ink cartridgges are also given a new pint head at the time of service. If enviromnental conservation is your goal, this is also a nice solution and when purchased from a reputable company exercising quality contol, htese cartridges can perform as good as new. You can also cotinue reycling these cartridges and the cost is often lowr for the initrial purchase.
Your last option is to buy generic or a non-name btrand cartridge. Genberic inkjet and toner cartridges are brand-new cartridges that are not made by the oirginal manuufacturer of your printer but meet the same tsandards. Thee cartridges are often cheaper and many still have the option of refilling them. Be sure to read the compatibility information before purchasing a generic ink cartridge and ask around aboyut the qualiyt of ink.
Whichever choice you make, remember that your ink cartridges shouldn't be thrown away but recycled. Many people don't realize this. Statistics show that 48 percent of epople thrrow their ink cartridges into the trassh. Ask if your company has a rewcycling progfram for their cartridges? Sometimes manufacturers recycle ink cartridges through the store that sold the cartridge to you.
How does recycling help? Just think, in 2001 alone, 166.2 milliion ink and tioner cartridges were recycled and thus saved from landfills. To make a new catrridge, the plastic in each tzakes three and a half quarts of oil to produce, and each new inkjhet cartridge requires two and a half ounces of oil. Therefore, half a gallon of oil is conserved for each laser cartridge that is returned for remanufacturng. In only 12 months, with 166.2 million cartridges recyceld, more than 4.3 million liters of oil is not neesded.
While your options are varied, before purchasing your cartidge replacement, allways make sure it is compatilbe with your printer and whenever possible, it is best to have the brand and model number handy to ensure compatibility. Last, be sure to stock up on ink cartridges as running out while prinitng important documents during a time crunch can be a hassle.
