In a new report just issued by InfoTrends ‘2007 Supplies Recycling: U.S. and Europe’ some very interesting conclusions have been drawn.
Tremendous amounts of printer cartridges are used every day right across the world, and OEM’s and 3rd party remanufacturers are trying to obtain those empty cartridges and divert the empty OEM cartridges from ending up in landfills. OEMs wish to recycle the materials to fulfil their environmental responsibilities, while the 3rd party remanufacturers need the cartridges to maintain their business. Despite these efforts, many cartridges do wind up in landfills. Some cartridges meet this fate without ever having been remanufactured, while some are remanufactured once before going into landfill.
The report raises several interesting issues for anybody interested in reducing, recycling and reusing:
- 1. The OEM’s own program to collect empties generally results in them being broken down into their constituent parts and then the base materials recycled
- 2. 3rd party remanufacturers will almost always re-use the cartridges that they collect following inspection and cleaning.
On the face of it the more environmentally friendly route for the consumer to take is the second, however you should be aware by now that not everything is obvious when it comes to Green issues!. A significant amount of the cartridges collected by remanufacturers are disposed of due to damage or end of useful life, or because they are undesirable cartridges that have little or no value. Also our own experience is that generally the remanufacturers are only interested in ‘virgin’ cartridges that have only been used once. The report contends that half of Europe’s laser cartridge remanufacturing waste is recycled, and 30% of inkjet cartridge remanufacturing waste is recycled or managed in some way. In addition, only about 10% of unusable laser cartridge waste is actually recycled by remanufactures in the U.S., and almost no integrated inkjet cartridges are recycled.
A big issue is the cost of collection of cartridges. When the Royal Mail (in the UK) imposing their new tariffs based on size as well as weight in August 2006, the cost of bringing back empty toner cartridges is actually several pounds more than the value of the cartridge in the recycling chain which became a real issue for us at Stinkyink where we issue a ‘FREEPOST’ label for bringing goods back for recycling.
The report goes on to say ‘ OEM’s and remanufacturers employ different methods and focus on different priorities when dealing with collected cartridges. While some OEM’s do not offer collection schemes for inkjet cartridges, OEM’s recycle the cartridges that they do collect. In contrast, while all cartridge remanufacturing companies surveyed expressed a desire to handle cartridges in the most environmentally sound manner, they also say it is often impractical due to cost and available recycling infrastructures’.
Controversially the report concludes:
- 1. 80% of remanufactured toner cartridges and 86% of remanufactured inkjet cartridges are thrown away because remanufacturers have such a strong preference for cartridges that have not previously been remanufactured (aka ‘virgin empties’)
- 2. Through remanufacturing, 3rd party supplies companies are able, on average, to reduce overall demand for new cartridges by about 20%.
- 3. Remanufacturers surveyed generally were not aware of the details concerning the waste management service providers they utilised.
- 4. Transparent and public reporting of environmental performance was not available from several OEM’s or any of the remanufacturers surveyed
- 5. Excess and damaged cartridges, as well as non-virgin cartridges, may be sold several times to successively lower-quality remanufacturers before being discarded
- 6. There are very few truly local remanufacturers; most local remanufacturers now outsource their products and no longer remanufacture directly
- 7. 16% of toner cartridges and 34% of inkjet cartridge remanufacturers collect cannot be profitably remanufactured
- 8. 3rd party supplies companies collect 70% more empty OEM toner cartridges and 700% more empty OEM inkjet cartridges than the OEM’s themselves.
It’s final conclusion is that ‘overall, however the imaging supplies industry can claim to be effectively reducing the impact of cartridges on the environment’ which is a pat on the back for both the OEM’s and remanufacturers
The full report is available to purchase at InfoTrends.
