You print a few documents for work, a bunch of vacation pictures, some other random tit bits here and there; and kaput! No more ink in your cartridge! So you are at that position again where your ink or toner cartridge has dried up on you. What are your options?
A. Chuck the cartridge away – you can afford to purchase an overly expensive replacement.
B. With global warming and the earth melting away, you decide to choose the humanitarian path and decide to recycle your empty cartridge.
C. You come to a decision that the cartridge is still in good condition so why not top it up with some ink.
Splurge, splurge, splurge!
It’s no myth that printer cartridges are expensive. A cartridge could leave you shelling out costs close to that of what you actually paid for the whole printer. Although there are new hybrid cartridges that are compatible with a wide range of printers, some people still choose to go in for the authentic thing. Big brands hold quality standards. People don’t mind investing in new cartridges as they have relied on these brands for a long time and know exactly what they’re getting. They are happy with the product and they believe spending a little more for trustworthy cartridges is only but reasonable. The consumer associates brand with price and in most cases, this ideology is spot on.
Save the ecosystem!
Electronic waste or e-waste as is commonly known constitutes a large and constantly growing new genre of waste. About 50 million tons of e-waste is discarded every year. How much of this really gets recycled? Not a whole lot! Most computer processing organizations have very public advertisements about recycling used, old printer cartridges and the likes. Now, these companies may be trying to make the world a more eco-friendly place but not all share the same theory. There are some that claim to be avidly recycling ink cartridges but this necessarily holds true. E-waste is exported to countries like China that end up gathering every last drop of ink out from these cartridges and then burn the cartridges or toss them into water bodies. So while you think you’re doing the world a favor, some multinational organizations are just scheming up techniques to make money. There are however, the ‘Good Samaritan’ organizations that do recycle e-waste and manufacture all kinds of byproducts from the waste.
If it’s not broken, it can still work!
And then there are those who firmly believe that refilling empty printer cartridges is the way to go. Ink refill kits are widely available at your local office supply shop or stationery and are fairly economical. If you decide to embark on this process by yourself it could get a bit messy but once you pick up the knack of it, it’s as easy as 1, 2, and 3! It is a tedious task though, and you must get the right amount of ink in the cartridge for the printing to carry out smoothly. You could also go down to your neighborhood computer shop and ask them to refill your printer cartridge for you. But the downside to this is you never know what type of ink they might use and it could render your prints to be an inferior quality.
So, choose wisely and do a little bit of homework the next time you decide to recycle or refill.
