Ink Cartridges for Printers and Environmental Responsibility

There are truly many little ways to contribute to saving the environment. In their own little ways, individuals and businesses alike have already taken measures to help such as avoiding the use of plastic bags while enforcing the use of recyclable paper bags in its place. In the same manner, many brands have gone greener by utilising recyclable and eco-friendly materials in the manufacturing of their products. In a more practical note, sustainable living has become a trend for many people as a way to protect the environment. The simplest way to explain this is by decreasing consumption of energy or water resources on a daily basis. This also means decreasing or preventing food waste by only purchasing what one can consume. Even companies who manufacture ink cartridges for printers have gone more eco-friendly simply by enforcing proper disposal of used ink cartridges such as HP DeskJet cartridges and Lexmark printer ink cartridges.


Hewlett-Packard answers pressing environmental issues by the reduction of energy utilization and related green house gases emissions of all their items forty percent less from 2005 levels by 2011, by using a hundred million pounds of recycle plastic amassed from 2007 in printing products, by improving energy efficiency of HP ink and laser printing products, by designing their desktop and laptop products to save one billion kilowatt-hours, by using at least thirty five percent of recycled paper in the packaging of printers, by utilizing thirty percent of post consumer waste on HP branded paper and by creating recycling programs for their products. To recycle use ink cartridges, you have the option of trading them in or sending them in for recycling. Some products will have return materials inside the cartridge boxes or you can order postage paid return shipping materials online.


On the other hand, Lexmark contributes to protect the environment by aiming to decrease the emission of green house gases by twenty percent from 2005, by reducing energy consumption by twenty percent, by reducing water consumption by twenty percent, by supporting projects that promote biodiversity such as reforestation, by eliminating the use of ozone-depleting chemicals in the manufacturing of their products, by reducing waste generated by twenty percent through recycling waste, by designing products that are more eco-friendly and by manufacturing products that are environmentally certified. To recycle used ink cartridges, one only needs to visit their website and request for a postage paid bag.


You might be thinking why there is a need for these companies to recycle their products especially ink cartridges. Let us enumerate the reasons why. For the manufacturing of a single coloured cartridge, green house gases emissions have been calculated to almost five kilograms of carbon dioxide excluding the toner. The toner in itself emits about three kilograms per cartridge. Every year three hundred and fifty million cartridges are thrown into landfills while each results to three and a half pounds of solid waste that would take four hundred and fifty to a thousand years to decompose. In the United Kingdom, forty five million cartridges are dumped in landfills enough to completely envelop the Old Trafford football pitch seventeen times or erect another Blackpool Tower, coat the Humber Bridge thrice and erect another Tyne Bridge, span the reaches of Hadrian’s Wall. In fact in a years’ time, fifteen million litres of oil can be saved through cartridge recycling.


It is a known fact that refilling, recycling or remanufacturing cartridges are an environment friendly way of disposing used cartridges. There are refilled or remanufactured cartridges that are also known as generic ink cartridges. These are done by third party manufacturers who make compatible ink or cartridges. While these are a lot cheaper than buying original hp deskjet cartridges or lexmark printer ink cartridges, they also have higher failure rates and can damage your printer. The downside of purchasing non-original equipment is that it can actually damage your printer. Remember, it is only supposed to be compatible and not a perfect fit like original equipment are. In this case, you cannot return your printer for a replacement because they will not honour the warranty. Now you will have the added problem of disposing the printer as well. So be a responsible consumer by participating in programs for recycling ink cartridges for printers and be appeased that your manufacturer is handling the waste responsibly.