10 Recycling Facts about Ink Cartridges

1. Over 65 million printer cartridges are sold each year in the UK alone.

2. Of these 65 million cartridges, only an estimated 15% are recycled or reused. So we need you to help us to recycle cartridges and increase this figure.

3. Up to 3 pints of oil are used in the manufacture of a new printer cartridge. When you recycle cartridges you can help reduce this figure.

4. Recycled printer cartridges cost up to 65% less than original brand cartridges.

5. If you recycle cartridges, you can prevent them ending up in a landfill, rubbish dumps and incinerators.

6. The plastic that is contained within the casing of printer cartridges can take up to 1000 years to decompose. The best way to prevent this is to recycle cartridges so that they are reused.

7. Imaging drums, as well as toner and inkjet cartridges, can all be recycled. So don’t forget to recycle your imaging drums when you recycle cartridges.

8. A whole barrel of oil is used for every 50 cartridges that are manufactured from new.

9. One barrel of oil can make around 20 gallons of petrol. That is a cost to you of about £23.50 at 2008 prices.

10. Our recycling manager claims to have been responsible for the recycling of over 1 million cartridges. We are not sure if we believe him, but if was true, that would be a saving of approximately 19 thousand barrels of oil. This is a saving of 1.1 million pounds worth of oil that would have otherwise been used in making new cartridges.