Cartridge recycling- Why not donate them instead?

Office materials that normally end up in the bin like toner and inkjet printer cartridges can be recycled – why not donate them instead?

Throwing away used printer cartridges sends them to landfill sites where they become part of our nation’s growing waste problem, as they slowly break down, chemicals can leak into the surrounding soil and pollute our land and waterways.

We need to recover the non-renewable materials that printer ink cartridges are made of. Up to 97 percent of the materials that make up a printer cartridge can be recycled or reused if taken care, which helps reduce the impact on our environment and resources.

By recycling your empty cartridges you are helping conserve natural resources, Saving money and helping create local jobs, and you’ll be helping the environment at the same time. By recycling them, you protect the environment and your future.

There are many benefits to recycling your empty cartridges and its so easy to do. Next time you head for that bin in your office, why not donate the cartridge and do something good with them. It doesn’t cost you anything to go green.

Some Printer Cartridge Facts:

1. More than 1.1 billion inkjet cartridges are used annually around the world - laid end to end this would be 129 times as long as the Great Wall of China

2. Each discarded empty laser printer cartridge adds approximately three pounds of waste to our landfills

3. The plastic used in a typical cartridge is made of engineering grade polymers and is expected to take up to 1000 years to decompose

4. More than 30 million inkjet cartridges are dumped each year in the UK (1800 tonnes) - the same weight as 18 Blue Whales

5. Over 375 million cartridges are thrown in the bin every year in the US. This amounts to roughly 11 cartridges being disposed of every second. If you put all these cartridges end to end they would cover a distance encircling the earth over three times.