Atlanta Ink Cartridge and Laser Toner Recycling

Do you wonder what to do with that empty cartridge when your printer or copier has used all of it’s ink or toner up and it is time to replace it? Do you know the impact that tossing that laser toner or ink cartridge into the trash has on your environment?

This year, over 700 million ink and toner cartridges will be consumed in the United States. A small fraction of empty cartridges will be recycled, but many more end up in landfills. Hazardous chemicals from the cartridges can pollute the environment, while the plastic they’re made of will take centuries to decompose. -Wastewise

One local option is a company based in Gwinnett County. Print Green USA offers recycling services for your spent and/or surplus imaging supplies (laser toners, ink cartridges, drums, etc). Print Green USA, Inc not only sells laser toners, printer drums and ink cartridges, but they will recover their clients empties for recycling.  They also will recycle empty laser toners and ink cartridges that were not purchased there.

For More Information, Please Contact Print Green USA via Their Website: Toner Recycling

Remember To Think Green In Gwinnett!!!

-If you have information on other local toner cartridge recycling options, please email: giga@greeningwinnett.org and we will review for posting consideration.

Do Those Laser Toners and Ink Cartridges Get Recycled? Not In Most Cases!

The first chapter into exploring my industry and the massive impact that it has on our environment.
Gwinnett! The following is a true account of this unethical field.
Green In Gwinnett Area GIGA encourages turning in your used laser toners and/or ink cartridges to be recycled. The are many programs available.

Print Green USA, Inc. located in Suwanee, GA has a program available to consumers.

Please email: recycle@printgreenga.com for details on how to recycle your laser toners or ink cartridges.

Please comment and I will explore your questions or your industry as well.

Lexmark and THE PREBATE:

Each quarter, Lexmark releases yet another financial statement reinforcing its “supplies-driven” profitability. It is making more dollars from the sale of cartridges than the sale of printers.

And how environmentally friendly are its programs?

Lexmark’s Prebate program (now known as its environmentally friendly “return” program) gives a discount at the time of sale if the customer agrees to return the cartridge to Lexmark, or at least agrees to not give it to a remanufacturer. So, a customer has already been rewarded for buying this “environmentally friendly” product, and any incentive to recycle it is long forgotten. When the cartridge is spent, the customer may find it inconvenient to return it to Lexmark. Still wanting to do the right thing, the customer attempts to sell or give it to a remanufacturer. The cartridge’s Prebate restrictions forbid its being remanufactured, so the preferable reuse option is foreclosed. Lexmark has testified in its lawsuit with Static Control Components that it gets back 50 percent of its Prebate cartridges, and that those cartridges are then remanufactured or recycled by Lexmark.

This begs the question: Are Lexmark’s recycling partners involved in legitimate recycling?

And what about the other 50 percent of the cartridges sold by Lexmark under the Prebate program?

They are condemned to landfills, as the Prebate restrictions mandate that they cannot be remanufactured by a third party. If a remanufacturer risks legal action by remanufacturing the Prebate cartridge, it runs into the chip problem. The chip acts as the enforcement device for the Prebate restrictions. It will determine if the cartridge has been remanufactured and will shut down the printer. Aftermarket chip solutions have been developed by several aftermarket vendors, one of whom has been sued by Lexmark for their ingenuity. Think Green Gwinnett! Start small, recycle, turn off the lights, recycle your laser toners…

To add even more insurance that the cartridge will not be remanufactured, Lexmark frequently changes the firmware in the printers through “upgrades” and during routine service maintenance. The firmware acts like a virus and renders many viable aftermarket solutions worthless.

Therefore, a Lexmark customer wanting to remanufacture the (return program) cartridge is frustrated at every turn. This is a classic bate and switch scheme.

So I beg all of you in Suwanee, Lawrenceville, Duluth, Norcross, Buford, Lilburn, Snellville, or any other area of Gwinnett County, please do the right thing and recycle your used laser toners and ink cartridges.

Stay tuned for another chapter in this tail…

Green In Gwinnett Area GIGA (Keeping Gwinnett Green and Sustainable)

and sponsor Print Green USA, Inc.

PrintGreenGA.COM