Using Recycled Ink Cartridges And Your Business Environmental Impact

The first rule in business is make money, sell for more than your costs and create value, keep yourself cash flow positive and you will not go far wrong. With this guiding capitalist principle in mind, recycling and adopting a environmentally green strategy has commonly been regarded as dead money that provides no return or business benefit. In this article we will be taking a brief look at the business sense that should be driving you to adopt a cleaner, greener approach and reduce your business environmental footprint.

The slogan for environmental friendliness is Reduce, Re-use, Recycle so before you even get to thinking about using recycled ink and toner cartridges, consider how you can actually reduce using ink in the first instance. Most of the ink that we use in our work and personal lives simply ends up in the trash as workers get into the habit of printing their work out to check it through rather than proofing it on their computer screen. Changing worker attitudes and habits will lead to a reduction in the use of ink, environmental waste and a direct saving in expense on ink and toner products in your office budget.

You can re-use your ink cartridges however this requires that you buy an ink refilling kit and the procedure can become quite messy. You will also find with a do-it-yourself ink refill approach that the print quality may suffer as the cartridge becomes clogged and dirty while the ink is not dispersed as well as it needs to be when printing. For practical business use a re-use strategy is probably not a realistic proposition and the time spent on actually refilling and cleaning cartridges will probably outweigh any commercial benefit from the cost saving on buying new or recycled products.

Recycled ink and toner cartridges offer the best way of reducing the environmental impact of your ink use. Using recycled ink and toner cartridges also makes a great deal of economic sense as the cost can be a fraction of that of buying a brand new product. You can quickly find suppliers of recycled ink and toner cartridges but you do need to ensure that you are getting a good quality product. Check that the recycled cartridge is refilled with a good quality ink as poor ink will not give the print quality that you demand while you may need more of it to produce the same amount of print thus increasing your cost and environmental impact. Also check that the ink or toner cartridges are actually being completely refilled as some unscrupulous suppliers cut costs further by reducing the amount of ink that is used to refill the cartridge.

When it comes to disposing of an ink or toner cartridge you can strike a deal with recycled cartridge suppliers to take your used cartridges off you. Very often they will actually pay you to take them away so avoiding increasing local landfill (where many cartridges end up) and defraying your business printing costs.