Green

How to Recycle Ink Cartridges

If one has to elicit the benefits of recycling, there is no doubt that the list would be pretty long to match the desires of those afflicted with the shopping fervor of the holiday season. Recycling ink cartridges, much like other recycling initiatives, help the cause of preserving our planet by maintaining the ecological balance of the environment in not using any more of our planet’s depleted natural resources than is necessary.
Interestingly, ink cartridges also play a role in this upholding the worthy objective of recycling.

Now if you have a printer, what do you do once you run out of ink?

The obvious answer being that you will get rid of it and go out to get a new one apart from those folks who are frugal enough to opt for third party options. If you throw it into your trash, there are two ways by which this harmful product is disposed, using either the incinerator or landfills.

As each cartridge consists of plastic and petroleum-based products that take only 1000 years to decompose, there’s no doubt that disposing of them will not help the aforementioned cause., especially when an ink cartridge can be used for another six times.

So, here are some ways to recycle used ink cartridges:

1) Companies provide instructions to recycle the old cartridge on the packaging or you can contact the manufacturer for instructions, for which you can receive a discount when obtaining a ‘refilled’ cartridge.
2) Find ‘green’ recycle trash cans.
3) You can contact organizations like Laser-Tone International, Eco-Office, Environmental Laser or the International Cartridge Recycling Association especially if you use ink cartridges in large numbers.
4) Look for recycling options over the internet for computer-based products and electronics.