I was at my mom’s a few days ago and she asked me if I could install a new HP 78 ink cartridgeon her inkjet printer. Of course, I obliged. My mother is 85 years old and doesn’t have much ability to fix things . But afterwards , she was just going to throw the old inkjet cartridge into the trash can. “Let me take it and recycle it,” I told her. “Oh I don’t bother with that,” was her reply.

What’s sad is that   this kind of attitude is the same as that of thousands of others. We live in a fast-paced, world.. Recycling works as long as it doesn’t take too much time. If the garbage company provides a large bin to put recyclables in, that’s easy. If you are forced to take it in somewhere or mail it somewhere, that’s not so easy. But it is important.

Now my companies always buy reconditioned HP compatible officejet ink off the internet.

Practically every home in America owns no less than one computer printer and many homes have more than one . Ink and Toner cartridges are containers that can be used up in a few months for home use, and much more quickly in a business . What happens if we throw all those used up cartridges and leftover ink and toner away? It gets deposited in our landfills.

Most do not recycle their ink and toner cartridges because it seems like a time consuming process or they don’t know what to do with them. Many name brand ink cartridges now come with a self-paid mailing pouch that you can put your spent ink cartridge in and return it at zero cost to you. That’s an easy way to go , but there is  a potential problem with this slolution . A better method is to help a local charity or church by donating to their fundraising efforts. Within a few phone calls you can find out if they collect ink or toner cartridges for fundraising. If not, suggest that they do. It helps a community group and also makes sure that the ink jet cartridges will actually be reconditioned, and not just incinerated .

A couple of things to be aware of . Some of the brand name ink cartridge makers offer something that appears to be a recycling program, but be sure to determine what they do  to the old cartridges before you use this service . Many of the well known print cartridge makers like Lexmark and Kodak incinerate the cartridges. They do this to prevent them from getting refilled so that you have to buy their original products. So figure it out first.

Eliminating pollution isn’t the only benefit that happens when recycling used print cartridges. You also save a good chunk of money. OEM inkjet cartridges sell for over 40 dollars each even if you buy them at a discount . Recycled ink cartridges can reduce your printing costs by a whopping 50%. Savings like that can really add up for companies large and small. My business uses  8850 ink cartridges   that prints excellent printed doucuments. Too bad the ink is very high priced. But we save more than $10 per unit buying the remanufactured ink cartridges.The best part is that you can also be helping the environment and even help out a good cause while saving your own hard-earned money That’s a perfect way to do business any way you slice it.

I urge you to do the same. You can get reconditioned   ink jet cartridges for nearly every brand of printer or copier. Make a difference. Buy reconditioned ink jet cartridges.