Commentary
Stop the Presses
An article in the San Jose Mercury News tells us that it takes a gallon of oil just to make a toner cartridge.
That wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t discard 8 empty cartridges a second in the U.S. And if it didn’t take 450 years for one to decompose.
What are people doing about it? Some choose to mail it into the manufacturer. Others, like a company in California, are trying to make partnerships to pick up cartridges and recycle them.
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Schools have used it as a fundraising mechanism, because Cartridge World will pay them $.25 per used cartridge.
Staples will also take back used printer cartridges in store.
To find a ink cartridge drop off in your area, use Earth 911’s recycling locator.
Taken from the article:
" It takes a gallon of oil
to create a toner cartridge, according to studies by environmental
organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency.
Those studies reveal another alarming reality: Every second, another eight "empties" in the United States are tossed out.
In North America, that adds up to 350 million a year. The discards are
creating a lot of e-waste in landfills, and that figure rises about 12
percent annually.
So how long do you think it takes for that empty critter to decompose? About 450 million years.
And recycling cartridges sometimes isn't as green as you might think.
Katy Kao, co-owner of Cartridge World Westgate in San Jose, points out
what it costs to mail those oldies-but-goodies back to big-brand
manufacturers. There's postage and gas, she says, along with even more
energy to crush the cartridges and make something else.
That's why Cartridge World, an international ink and toner re-filler
based in Emeryville, is big on re-manufacturing used cartridges,
beseeching consumers and businesses alike: "Please don't feed the
landfills." Read the full article here