No matter where you are reading this, but you most probably have a printer nearby. And the chances are really high that it is an inkjet printer. Inkjet printers have increased in popularity and efficiency since their introduction in the latter half of the 1980s, although falling dramatically in price.
An inkjet printer is any printer that produces an image by placing extremely tiny droplets of ink on paper. A piece of paper coming from an inkjet printer, you know that:
- The dots are incredibly small (usually 50 to 60 microns in diameter), so small that they are smaller than the diameter (70 microns) of a human hair!
- The dots are located very precisely with a resolution of up to 1440×720 dots per inch (dpi).
- To produce photo-quality pictures, the dots can have various colours mixed together.
However, a printer machine is nothing without ink cartridge.
But, did we know at what cost ink cartridges have inkjet printers gained their popularity?
Ink items are an important part of life at home, business, and education. Without a home or office printer, we couldn’t create beautiful projects, share photos of friends, or do simple household tasks when you run out of ink, the concern for those who are environmentally-minded lies in what happens. Those empty cartridges of toner and inkjet become bits of plastic garbage that seem easy enough to dump in the trash.
When it comes to printer cartridges, some statistics from 2013 showed that Only about 15% of the total ink cartridges used in the UK are recycled. Today the statistics will be much worse. Did we ever give a thought about how degrading it would be to our environment?
For this purpose, recycling ink cartridges are extremely important. Many companies are already using it. For example, HP is using over 18.8 million for recycling ink cartridges into easy and affordable new products.
Why should we recycle ink cartridges?
Table of Contents
- It decreases pollution/emissions of air and water associated with landfilling, incineration, or production of new cartridges.
- As it eliminates the need for raw materials, it conserves our natural resources such as wood, water, oil/petroleum, and minerals.
- It helps save energy.
- It lowers greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change globally.
- For future generations, it helps us preserve the climate.
Moreover, some countries have already shifted their focus on recycling ink cartridges. For example, in North America, more than 40,000 tonnes of plastic and metal are saved annually from landfills as a result of recycling ink cartridges. We will save 9599 kilograms of aluminium, 40 tonnes of plastic, and 1,000,000 litres of oil for every 100,000 used cartridges recycled. Recycling of ink cartridges has essentially become synonymous with good sustainable growth.
Now, by reusing those cartridges before recycling them, imagine the exponential savings. Reuse is the best recycling method, which is why remanufacturing is the perfect way to give another life to used inkjet and toner cartridges-a life that does not require being left in a landfill because it takes a staggering one thousand years for the cartridge to decompose.
Other Benefits We Can Get After Recycling Ink Cartridges
Recycling has another global advantage, and it has less to do with our surroundings and more to do with our cultures. HP ® stepped in to help when well-intentioned relief efforts left millions of plastic water bottles on the streets and beaches of earthquake-torn Haiti. We started to work with non-profits and corporations to create a system that recruits and trains Haitians to collect and sort the plastic garbage that overwhelmed their cities.
This rescued plastic was cleared away, and some of the recycled plastic used in the new HP ink cartridges was later made up. This initiative has made a real difference in Haiti’s trash levels and proves that recycling of ink cartridges is not just a way to get rid of the trash. In order to benefit their loved ones, it can help families make a living too.
Although the numbers are frightening, there is still light where there is darkness, and we have found some true heroes out there who are making a real difference by changing the way we think about recycling and looking at new possibilities for producing new goods using recycled materials.
Examples of a few things that can be made are
- Bike paths made from recycled ink cartridges
- Plastic roads and car parks
- Furniture made from toner and recycled ink cartridges
- And lousy ink.
Therefore, it is really important for us to understand the process of recycling, why we do it, and what benefits we have for our health and our communities. For these reasons, recycling ink cartridges has become extremely important. There are a few companies like Cartridge Recycling in UK that even offer to buy used ink cartridges for cash.
