Millions of ink and toner cartridges get used daily across the world and unfortunately millions of them are thrown away into the home or office dustbins every day without a second thought. When thrown away like this, these printer cartridges end up in landfills and are highly damaging to the environment. However, there are many ways to properly dispose of them or even earn some money out of them. Read on to know how!
Sell It
Making some money while you are getting rid of your empty toner cartridges is definitely a great deal. You can choose to sell them to a local supplier of printers or ink and toner cartridges as they usually have a policy for these and would be very willing to take the empty cartridges off your hands. If you’re unable to find a local supplier or if they don’t have a policy for buying used cartridges, you can always turn to the internet. There are a lot of online websites that purchase empty cartridges as part of their business. Since they have a minimum number of cartridges as part of their purchase requirements, you should read their website properly to get an idea of this and how you should mail them the cartridges.
One of the best ways, however, is to just send them back to the manufacturers. Many manufacturers provide an envelope/package specifically for this purpose. These manufacturers generally offer some form of remuneration, either through directly paying you a certain amount per printer cartridge or by offering discounts on products they sell at their stores (local or online). This is highly effective as the manufacturers just reuse these empty cartridges and create Remanufactured Ink and Toner Cartridges. They refill the ink or toners in the empty cartridges, repair or replace the damaged parts and once they have passed tests to prove their printing quality, they are sent back to retailers as Remanufactured Cartridges which are cheaper, sometimes by as much as 50%. Since these empty cartridges are just reused, they help protect the environment by not ending up as polluting metals and plastics in the waste dumps.
Refill It
A simple solution to empty printer cartridges is to just refill them. I know, revolutionary! There are two ways you can do it. One is to send the empty ink or toner cartridges to a local supplier or the manufacturer and once refilled they send it back, but be sure to check with the local supplier or manufacturer before sending the cartridge back since not all of them have this service available. The other is to just do the refilling process yourself. Although a lot of people think of this process as complicated, it really isn’t! There are many refilling kits available in the market and you can read the instructions that come with the kits to follow the very simple procedure. Keep in mind though, the more a cartridge is used, generally after a few refills, the less the print quality will be.
Recycle It
To reduce the impact that cartridges have on our environment, it is such a significant step to recycle your used ink and toner cartridges. There are many local recycle organizations that may take these empty cartridges off of you. To search the closest recycling location in your area, you can visit Earth911.com. You should, however, get in touch with them beforehand to know about their policy. There might be a particular way you are required to pack the cartridges before you drop them off at the recycler since the whole purpose is to reuse the metals and such from those cartridges. By doing this you are doing a great service to your planet and as that is the primary purpose of recycling. However, quite a few of them do offer the facility of picking up your used or empty toners and cartridges from your home/office itself. Recycled ink cartridges are available at various stores and can be a cheap and useful option for many.
Donate It
Another fantastic way of doing away with those cartridges is to donate them to the various non-profit organizations out there as well as charities. These organizations will either refill these toners and cartridges and use them themselves or sell/auction them off and use the proceeds for the cause they stand for.
In light of all of these options, there really is no excuse why one wouldn’t explore them. No matter which method you choose, you are making a difference for our environment.