18 May Bring Green into Your Office World!

Whether you’re a solo practice or operate a corporation employing several workers, you can take actions to make your place of business more environmentally friendly.  Not only will going green likely save you money, it is a business practice that can be used to promote your company to customers and potential employees. 

Toner and ink cartridges can be a costly part of any office operation.  There are a number of ways to reduce its use.  Buying locally remanufactured toner and inkjet cartridges, and recycling empty cartridges, is an easy way your office to reduce the environmental impact of these discarded products.  Any office equipment that uses a replaceable toner or inkjet cartridge should be able to use remanufactured cartridges.

So exactly what is remanufactured toner?

Remanufactured toner (recycled toner and inkjet cartridges) is a process of collecting, sorting, cleansing, treating, or reconstituting for the manufacture of new products or the remanufacture of used cartridges.

The typical used toner cartridge weighs about three pounds and is composed of 40% plastic, 40% metal and smaller percentages of rubber, paper, foam and toner. The plastic is made of engineering-grade polymers and takes at least 1,000 years to decompose. However, approximately 97% of these combined components can be recycled or reused.

Source Reduction

Source reduction is at the top of the waste management hierarchy. It includes remanufacture and reuse of products. Source reduction activities reduce the amount or toxicity of wastes before they enter the municipal solid waste management system. The recovery and reuse of toner cartridges diverts millions of cubic feet of material from landfills.

Performance

It has been the experience of many users that remanufactured toner and inkjet cartridges will perform as well as, or better than, new cartridges when they are remanufactured by reputable companies exercising good quality control. Cartridge remanufacturing and recycling has improved drastically since it began in the 1980s and through the 2000s. At that time, many companies did not properly remanufacture cartridges. Instead, they used what is referred to as the "drill and fill" (thus the term “refilled toner”) method to refill cartridges without taking appropriate steps to properly disassemble, refit, clean, and reassemble the cartridge. Many customers who wanted to demonstrate environmental awareness were frustrated by poor product quality and unresponsive customer service from these disreputable companies. Today's practices are far superior.

Cost

One of the clearest advantages of using remanufactured toner or inkjet cartridges is cost savings. Remanufactured cartridges commonly cost 20-40% percent less than new cartridges. Moreover, they often contain up to 20% more toner or ink. Remanufactured cartridges are a good value because product quality and performance can match or exceed that of new cartridges.

Tips on buying toner and inkjet cartridges

So now you are ready to buy remanufactured toner, but are all remanufactured toner the same?  Below are some tips to consider when buying remanufactured toner and inkjet cartridges.

• Does the company use a true remanufacturing process to disassemble, replace parts, clean, refill with toner, and reassemble cartridges – not just "refill" them? What parts are replaced during the process?
• Assessment to determine if the toner cartridge can be remanufactured.  Unfortunately, not all “compatible toner” (not to be confused with remanufactured toner) can be recycled to be reused.  So when being tempted to buy very inexpensive (generally “great deals” found online) compatible toner, consider that it is most likely made in China. Sadly, China uses very cheap materials which prevent it from being remanufactured for continued use.  

Another way to bring green practices into your office world is to start a recycling program.  Currently, Little Miss Recycle offers a free recycling service for toner and/or inkjet cartridges and drums. 

How does our recycling program work?

• Use them
• Collect them
• Give us a call or email us to schedule a pick-up
• We come to you and pick them up!

Updating your office equipment? Little Miss Recycle also offers free e-waste services for most printers, copiers, faxes, computers, flat screen monitors and laptops. Additionally, we provide on-site removal of computer hard drives.

Little Miss Recycle is proud to be a local green company that cares about our environment. We are focused on providing high quality recycling services and remanufactured toner.  So go for it!  Bring green into your office world today!  Go to our website at www.littlemissrecycle.com