Printer Cartridge Recycling
About 41.7 million litres of oil can be saved per year by recycling the plastic in printer cartridges
Of the estimated 11 million printer cartridges sold in South Africa annually, under 10% are recycled
97% of material in a printer cartridge can be recycled
Recycling cuts down on the energy needed to make a new cartridge, reducing CO2 emission by nearly 6 tons annually
What makes up the ink in an “ink” printer cartridge :
- 95% super-pure deionised water (which is why ink is very expensive)
- Butyl Uera (to stop paper curling when ink dries)
- Cyclohexanone (to make the ink stick)
- Ethoxylated acetylenic diols (modifies the surface tension of the water)
- Ethalene Glycol (keeps the dye in the water)
- Edta (to protect the metal strip of the printhead)
Reactive red 23 Magenta (contains copper)
Direct blue 199 Cyan (contains copper and sulphur)
Acid yellow 23 Yellow
What parts of a printer cartridge can be recycled:
- Metal (Aluminium, copper, gold, steel and palladium)
What is inside toner powder:
- 60% polymer
- 30% iron oxide (assists toner to become electrostatic)
- 10% pigment/dye
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into reusable objects to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, energy usage, air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by decreasing the need for “conventional” waste disposal and lowering greenhouse gas emissions compared to plastic production.
Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” waste hierarchy.
By using a remanufactured Eclipse printer cartridge from Cartridge Depot, the carbon footprint per cartridge is reduced by approximately 2.5kg of CO2 emission and 3 liters of crude oil.