What do you do with empty toner cartridges? Every year, millions of empty toner cartridges end up in landfills. Ink residue could leak from these cartridges and contaminate water supplies, and this could be very harmful. Moreover, improper disposal of toners is environmentally dangerous. With constant calls and pleas to help save the environment, it’s only natural that you do something about your used toner cartridges. After all, you don’t want to be among those labeled as enemies of the environment.
Is there any use for empty toner cartridges? These days, recycling empty toner cartridges is highly encouraged. In addition, some have turned this practice into something profitable the same way that they profit from finding items to sell from their attics or cellars. Numerous benefits can be had from recycling toners. It helps reduce solid waste. It also cuts the overhead expenses of manufacturers since the raw materials and energy needed to produce a batch of new cartridges are conserved.
Surprisingly, many cartridges can be recycled up to a maximum of six times. If you regularly purchase toners for your printer, you probably have come across cartridges labeled as “refurbished.” These are the very ones that have been recycled. The empty cartridges were cleaned, fixed, and refilled. Then, these are sold to consumers at significantly lower prices. It doesn’t mean they are less in quality though. They pretty much print the same as the original ones.
If you have many empty cartridges at home or in your office and you don’t have a clue what to do with those, you might want to consider the following suggestions.
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1. Donate the Empty Cartridges to Charity.
Make a quick online search to see if there are receiving areas in your place where you can take the empty cartridges.
2. Bring To Stores.
Take back the empty cartridges to the store where you bought them and ask if they would be willing to buy them from you. Most likely, they will. They could offer you store credit, cash, or rewards in exchange for the empty cartridges. A quick search online would give you a list of the nearest stores that would buy take empty cartridges.
3. Send back to Manufacturers.
Most manufacturers of ink toners include prepaid envelopes in the package that you can use to re-ship the empty toners back to them. They normally ask for the empty cartridges so they can recycle it. If you send back the empty cartridges, they would most likely send a free replacement cartridge to you or give you discount codes for your next purchase. So next time you buy ink for your printer, consider buying from manufacturers that recycle them. Responsible businesses should always have our full support.
4. Sell the empty cartridges for cash.
Again, the Internet can help you look for organizations that accept used toner cartridges in exchange for cash. Some would pay $4 per empty cartridge. It’s not bad a deal, you get money and help gave those cartridges a second chance. 🙂 Try USRecycleInk for example.
There are many ways to recycle stuff, including empty toner cartridges. What’s great about this is you can always ask for something in exchange for the empty ones. Why would people pay or reward you for your empty cartridges? Well, we’ve covered the answer above.
These empty cartridges can be reused. This would save manufacturers tons of cash, and in turn, they share what they save to consumers. Besides, your efforts to save the environment by recycling empty toner cartridges should definitely be rewarded.
i think it is great that some businesses are encouraging people to recycle the cartridges..
We always take our empty cartridges to Office Depot and get them refilled.
Interesting post — I didn’t know I had the option of taking back old toner cartridges to the store where I bought them or to get them recycled. I’m all about helping with the environment — thanks for the tips!