The complexity of inkjet cartridges makes it hard for them to be recycled, even though almost all of the materials used to make a printer ink cartridge are recyclable.
The complexity of inkjet cartridges makes it hard for them to be recycled, even though almost all of the materials used to make a printer ink cartridge are recyclable. However, do not be deterred from sending cartridges to manufacturers or dropping them off at office supply stores to recycle. The sad truth is that only 15% of the 65 million printer cartridges that are sold in the UK are recycled. This means that the rest end up in landfill sites and this is harmful for the environment as the plastic used in a typical cartridge is made of engineering grade polymers.This takes from 450 to 1000 years to decompose!
Inkjets are really small in size: these fit in the palm of your hand and have a circuit board and jet plate on the bottom. The cartridges that have circuit boards have a recycling value when empty. The circuit boards are patented and cannot be made from new, so an empty cartridge must be refilled in order to create an alternative to the original OEM product.
Cartridges can be expensive and remanufactured printer cartridges can cost as little as 10% of what original cartridges do, so recycling printer cartridges is really worthwhile. By preventing cartridges from ending up in landfill sites, you are taking care of the environment too. We can significantly reduce our carbon waste output through making a worldwide effort to recycle ink cartridges. Ink cartridges have a terrible negative impact on our environment.
It is evident that many people, ranging from the common man to large corporations, make the effort to recycle ink cartridges. Every year 2.5 million ink cartridges are sent off to recycling plants and become re-used – however a staggering 10 million end up in a landfill site. According to a Planet Ark report in 2006, if 18 million ink cartridges were sent to the dump this would create waste of 3,000 tonnes of plastic, 2,500 ferrous metals, 400 tonnes of aluminium and 26 kilograms (about 58 pounds) of precious metals. On top of all this, that 3,000 tonnes of plastic can take up to well over a couple of hundred years to degenerate.
As a result of cartridge recycling, more than 40,000 tons of plastic and metal is saved from landfills annually as a result of cartridge recycling. For every 100,000 used cartridges recycled, we can save 9599 kilograms of aluminum, 40 tons of plastic, and 1,000,000 liters of oil. Ink cartridge recycling has become synonymous with successful sustainable development.
Toner Trader buys printer ink cartridges. We have an outstanding quick collections service by using interlink. If you let us know your email address or mobile phone number, Toner Trader will inform you the one-hour time window during which the collection will take place. So you will be assigned a precise time and none of your time will be wasted in waiting for us.
