According to current statistics, only 5% of empty printer cartridges are being recycled – this means that 95% of these items are simply discarded and end up in landfill sites.

You’re not alone if you throw away your ink cartridge when it runs out. Over 13 cartridges are disposed of in an American trash can every second, totaling an estimated 375 million each year. The total weight of these cartridges is equivalent to 67,612 Ford Explorers or 112,463 Volkswagen Beetles.

Discarded cartridges have quite an environmental impact:

• The average toner cartridge is composed of 40 percent plastic, 40 percent metal and smaller amounts of rubber, paper, foam and toner.
• Plastics used in printer cartridges can take over 10 centuries (over 1000 years) to decompose and is mixed resin, one of the most difficult plastics to recycle.
• It takes 2.5 ounces of oil to make a new inkjet cartridge and ten times this amount for laser printer cartridges.
• Of the materials that make up ink cartridges, 97 percent can be reused and recycled.
• Approximately 120 Million tons of waste each year can be kept out of landfills just by recycling ink and laser toner cartridges.
• With students averaging 8 inkjet cartridges, schools using 300 or more laser printer cartridges and businesses using 900 to 1600 inkjets and laser printer cartridges each year, we are producing and accumulating waste at an incredible rate.

Used cartridges can be remanufactured many times over and keep plastic, steel, aluminum and rubber out of landfills. If you buy remanufactured cartridges, you save not only oil but also 3.5 pounds of waste from entering landfills.

Recycling ink cartridges not only helps the environment, but it also saves money and lowers energy consumption.