Unfortunately, we live in a throwaway society in which the need for information is often urgent and pressing. Despite having a realization of the effects of our wastefulness imprinted upon the environment, sometimes we forget to do simple things that could make a greater impact.

One example is printing cartridges and toner. As seemingly simple as it may sound, recycling cartridges is just one way we could all make a difference. The printers nowadays are very inexpensive, but the toner often costs as much as the printer itself. Sometimes it seems like it disappears just as fast as you replace it. But do you throw the cartridge away, or do you recycle it?

Excessive Waste Found in Printer Cartridges

Around the world, paper consumption has tripled within the past two generations. This is largely due to the expansion of technology. The hope for one day going paperless does not seem to be very realistic, as the flow of data and the growth of offices and businesses around the globe has increased, in conjunction with the rise of the internet.

But do you really, really want to know the truth? An average employee at any typical office prints seven wasteful pages every day, which equals approximately 2,555 wasted pages each year. Of course, this tally is much higher within certain industries, such as financial institutions or medical facilities where a lot of forms need to be filled out by customers.

Regarding the toner cartridges themselves, over 350 million of them get tossed in the waste bucket and then sent to the dump. That number may be understated; as many as 1.8 billion estimated ink cartridges from the last known findings provided by Preton Printing.

What happens to these cartridges after they wind up in the landfill?

Well, every ink cartridge then turns into three and a half pounds (3.5 lbs.) of solid waste, which can take anywhere from 500 – 1,000 years to finally decompose. The emissions given off by these mega-piles of ink cartridges give off approximately five kg per cartridge.

The point is this… you throw away one ink cartridge and think that it is no big deal, when in reality, the many thousands and millions of “no big deals” truly accumulate around the world. If we all made a conscious effort, imagine the difference we could all make!

Contact Roar Postal Supplies to find solutions to your ink cartridge recycling dilemma. We can offer suggestions.