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Recycling laws has been implemented all over the world. The recycling rate in the United States has increased by 28% for the past 15 years. This is indeed great news since in 1999, the waste management and composting activities prevented about 64 million tons of material from ending up in landfills and incinerators. And this helped the environment a lot.

One sad fact though is that 95% of inkjet and laser printer cartridges are discarded every year and just ended up in sanitary landfills. So there are only 5% of used empty printer ink cartridges being recycled every year as compared to other specific materials, which has grown even more drastically. Research shows that 42% of paper, 40% of plastic soft drinks bottle, 55% of aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 57% of steel packaging, and 52% off  major appliances are now recycled.

The lack of printer ink cartridge recycling is very costly for tax-payers. Inkjet cartridge users such as schools, offices and businesses are adding to tons of waste each year to our brimming landfills. Let’s take a look at these facts and see how much it would cost us if we don’t consider recycling as an option:

1. It takes 2.5 ounces of oil to make a new inkjet cartridge and ten times of this amount for laser ink cartridges;

2. Plastics used in inkjet cartridge and laser printer cartridges take over 1000 years to decompose; and

3. In an average of 8 inkjet cartridges with students; 300 or more laser printer cartridges in schools; 900 to 16000 of inkjets and laser printer cartridges in businesses each year.

With all these facts, we are producing and accumulating waste at a far-fetched rate each year.
But who would want to settle with this current situation? We can all make a difference. We can definitely participate in inkjet cartridges recycling programs which include recycling different types of cartridges and toners, and even cell phones. As a result, there will be lesser waste in landfills and more hope for future generations and the environment.

Ink cartridge recycling is more prevalent than ever before. New recycling programs have made it easier to recycle ink cartridges and, in some cases, get money back for recycling them. Good news! In the last 10 years, recycling has climbed up drastically. According to The Print Company Recycling Program, currently as much as 28% of waste produced by Americans is being recycled. This is so true in ink cartridges because they are disposable and are often just thrown away without any thought of recycling. There have been a lot of office-supply companies that are encouraged to participate in the cartridge-recycling programs. Such companies are OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Staples. In 2007, Staples, OfficeMax and Office Depot began to offer $3 in-store credit for each qualifying cartridge. The cartridges that qualify for in-store credit at these locations are HP, Dell and Epson, but the stores will accept and recycle any cartridge.

Vast recycling programs are in place for all computer parts since nearly all electronics contain components that are either valuable or not good for landfills. Millions of ink cartridges are used every year and usually end up in a landfill. If these will all be recycled, just think of how much cost we could save and decreasing the rate of environmental damage.