Helping The Earth: The Importance Of Recycling Toner Cartridges From Your Houston Printer

For almost fifty years, printer toner has been available for purchase. In the late 70s, businesses were able to use laser printers. In the early 80s, laser printers were available for home purchase as well. Toner cartridges are used up very quickly throughout the United States, as many businesses utilize them to perform essential work functions. Each year, around 70 million toner cartridges find their way into the trash. Many people don't realize that toner cartridges are recyclable. Much like scrap metal and soda bottles, they can either be reused after refurbishment or broken down. Not only is recycling good for the environment, but it is also good for your business as well. It doesn't take a lot to get the process underway.

Office Recycling Programs

On a personal level, there are programs that allow you to return your old cartridges to the manufacturers. Typically, there are designated locations where you can take the cartridges or you can just put them in the mail. If you are looking for such a program, there is a lot of information available on the Internet. Businesses normally purchase their cartridges from a vendor rather than a shop. That makes the return process a little more confusing because many people aren't sure what to do. Manufacturers are starting to jump in and take charge, though. There is one option that is particularly simple. You just get a recycling box from your vendor. You add cartridges to that box until you can't put any more in. Close up the box and send it on its way. The manufacturer usually pays for shipping. There are a lot of manufacturers that provide this type of recycling program for businesses. More and more of them are also going to a closed-loop recycling system, to ensure that they do not send additional trash to a landfill. One popular recycler is Close the Loop, and they attempt to reuse and recycle every last one of their cartridges. If they aren't able to make a new cartridge from an old one, they take the parts of that cartridge and use it in other ways. For example, the plastic, metal, and toner can be used to create anything from park benches to pens to asphalt. Close the Loop can help businesses get started with the collection process as well.

How It Helps The Earth

So many cartridges wind up in the trash; close to a million per day are tossed out. That means there is a lot of extra trash in the landfills, to the tune of 500 million toner cartridges each year. It can take up to a thousand years for the cartridges to biodegrade. If you took a cartridge, dug a hole for it outside, and buried it, someone could unearth it in three hundred years and it would basically be the same as it is now. Toner cartridges, like the kind used in printers in Houston TX, have a lot of metal and plastic on them. These are materials that are perfect for reuse. In order to help cartridges avoid incinerators and landfills, closed-loop recycling was created. Old cartridges create new cartridges in this process. Not only is there less raw materials used up in closed-loop recycling, but fuel is conserved as well because those raw materials don't have to travel anywhere. During the creation of a new cartridge, a lot of water and fossil fuel is consumed. Recycling simply makes sense for our planet.

Recycle At The Office

Most of the big companies work with a vendor that deals with the recycling. One person at work generally communicates with the vendor to ensure that the process goes smoothly. If you aren't a part of a large business and you don't currently have a recycling program set up, take a look at a site entitled "Recycling at Work." Created by Keep America Beautiful, it helps businesses get a recycling program in place. Check out our blog for more related articles and for more information on printers and how they cater to saving the planet! Contact Advanced Business Copier or call us at 281-397-7429 now!