Why And How To Recycle Your Ink Cartridges

If you work in an office or have an inkjet printer at home then you will know how quickly ink cartridges can be got through. This is becoming an increasing problem, as it has been estimated that around 60 million inkjet cartridges are thrown away each year in the UK alone. Of these, only around 15 per cent are recycled. The sustainability benefits of recycling your cartridges, whether for office or home use, are pretty clear. If you think that each cartridge, made from engineering grade polymers, can take around 1000 years to decompose in a landfill site, then that 85 per cent not being recycled represents a pretty hefty burden on the environment.

Added to this environmental aspect is the financial burden that throwing away inkjet cartridges can place on the average tax payer. Transporting household or office waste to landfill sites costs the consumer via the medium of landfill tax. You can help cut these costs and make a little extra money for yourself at the same time by taking your used cartridges back to suppliers in exchange for cash. Also, bear in mind that re-manufactured cartridges can sometimes cost as little as 50 per cent of the price of the original cartridges.

If you have bought your ink cartridges online then the supplier will often run a scheme whereby you can return them to be recycled in exchange for money. It’s worth checking with them beforehand to find out what the prices are and which types of cartridges they will accept back. It is usually then a simple matter of filling in a form and getting a date for when they will be collected. If you have not bought your cartridges online, local suppliers such as WH Smiths will sometimes have recycling schemes so get finding out.

If you are really keen on recycling and want to go further you could even arrange for your neighbours’ ink cartridges to be collected as well. Or if you work in a large office, why not take charge of collecting the cartridges from each department so they can all be done efficiently in one go?

Aside from recycling, you can also save on your ink costs by refilling your toner or inkjet cartridges yourself. You can’t do this with every kind of cartridge, but where you can it’s a simple enough process and the original supplier should be able to provide you with detailed instructions so there’s no chance of getting it wrong. Like recycling, re-filling the cartridge is a much greener, more cost effective and more efficient way of managing your printer ink usage.