How Can My Office Implement a Toner Recycling Program?

Many of the office supplies employees use every day are easily recyclable. This applies to almost everything in the office, from pens and paper to desktop computers and electronics.

Recycling helps small businesses and enterprises contribute to the environmental sustainability of commerce and industry. Even if employees don’t see the results, the overall reduction in air and water pollution through manufacturing emissions and landfilling is real.

This is especially true for printer toner cartridges and ink cartridges. Every year, millions of empty ink and toner cartridges end up either in landfills or incinerators. That’s more than half of the United States’ entire annual ink and toner consumption.

Toner recycling programs help organizations do their part to protect the environment and improve local conditions for their communities. Implementing a toner cartridge recycling program is easy.

Look to Print Manufacturers for Toner Recycling Programs

Environmentally conscious print manufacturers help their users recycle used print cartridges. Manufacturer-offered printer cartridge recycling gives office managers the ability to ensure their empty cartridges don’t end up in landfills. At the same time, it provides manufacturers with raw material they can reuse to create more cartridges.

This is important because of the materials that go into creating new printer cartridges. It takes more than three quarts of oil to create a single new laser cartridge. Reducing the need to draw more oil out of the Earth conserves natural resources.

Not only does recycling help conserve oil, but it also benefits environmental conservation efforts for timber, water, and metals. It also saves energy, decreases greenhouse gas emissions, and helps to sustain a hospitable environment for future generations.

Xerox Green World Alliance

One of the manufacturers that offers a toner and ink cartridge recycling program is Xerox. Through its Green World Alliance program, Xerox has kept more than 145 million pounds of print waste out of landfills.

Xerox pays return shipping for spent cartridges and other items on its Take Back List. All that Xerox users have to do is select the appropriate item on the Xerox website and send the item to the nearest Xerox location.

Xerox also offers an Eco Box option for users with more than four items to recycle. Simply order a kit from Xerox and the manufacturer ships one free of charge. Fill the box with used print supplies and send it back.

Users who wish to consolidate more than 30 items at a time will have to load them onto a pallet, complete a bill of lading and schedule pickup with Ryder Logistics. Xerox pays for the shipping and recycling costs from there.

Toshiba Recycling Program

Another manufacturer that offers an easy and accessible toner recycling program is Toshiba. Toshiba’s toner cartridge recycling program is simple to implement at any office.

All office managers have to do is contact the manufacturer and ask for a collection box. Toshiba will send a 13 x 13 x 32-inch box that holds between 15 and 20 print cartridges. It will then collect the box once it is full and take care of the entire recycling process from there.

Toshiba’s recycling program is compatible with all toner cartridges, bottles, ink, waste collection bottles, and even printer drum units. Through its partnership with Close the Loop, Toshiba is able to support non-Toshiba equipment as part of its toner recycling program as well.

This makes Toshiba’s program easy to implement even for print users that don’t use Toshiba equipment. Close the Loop will make sure spent ink and toner cartridges make their way to the appropriate recycling or remanufacturing center.

Remanufactured Cartridges Offer Savings

Not all recycled ink and toner cartridges are remanufactured, but a great majority of them are eligible for remanufacture. Most printer cartridges can tolerate being refilled between five and seven times before they become too worn out.

Cartridges remanufacturers take spent cartridges, refill and repair them, then sell them to print users at significantly reduced prices compared to new manufacturer cartridges. If the process is done right, the resulting cartridge offers like-new performance at a fraction of the price and environmental footprint of purchasing new cartridges.

But successful remanufacturing requires specialized tools and expertise. Large, reputable remanufacturing companies have a clear advantage due to economies of scale and the ability to support multiple printer brands and cartridge types.

The primary benefit of remanufacturing is that it reduces the oil consumption of purchasing replacement cartridges to zero. This, alongside a comprehensive toner recycling program, goes a long way in helping to reduce the overall environmental effect of purchasing ink and toner cartridges.