Ink And Toner Recycling Facts:
1-It takes nearly a gallon (3 1/2 quarts) of oil to produce a new laser printer cartridge, and 2 1/2 ounces of oil to manufacture each new inkjet cartridge.
2-In the United States, printer cartridges are thrown away at a rate of eight per second and this is expected to increase by 12% annually.
3-More than 350 million printer cartridges go into North American landfills every year.
4-The total weight of cartridges thrown away each year in this country is equivalent to 67,612 Ford Explorers or 112,463 Volkswagen Beetles.
5-In a single year, the world’s discarded cartridges stacked end-to-end would circle the earth three times
6-Most printer cartridges contain mixed resin plastics, the most difficult type of plastic to recycle.
7-Toner residue can seldom be completely separated from the cartridge’s plastic, thus contaminating the plastic and making it even less likely to be recycled.
8-A laser printer cartridge thrown into a landfill can take up to 450 years to decompose (while components made of industrial-grade plastic will take over a thousand years)
9-Reusing printer cartridges saves energy and the natural resources used to produce power while reducing greenhouse gases.
10-Every reused cartridge saves nearly 3.5 pounds of solid waste from being deposited into landfills.