Stinky Ink News

We have been trying to find a credible recycling partner for ages, and have just signed up with Recycle Cartridge.Org.  They are providing a range of recycling envelopes which you will see packed with your orders alongside any cartridges that are worth recycling, these are mainly:

HP, Lexmark, Dell, some Canon’s

If you have a shop/Doctors Surgery/School and are able to collect larger quantities then we can provide large recycling boxes that you can offer to your customers as a new facility.  These are also suitable for Laser Toner cartridges.

You can read more information on the Recyclecartridge.org website

 

Everyone and their brother/sister has been watching oil prices go up and up and up.  There seems to be no end.  With higher oil prices, means higher fuel cost, which in turns means higher prices for almost everything.  But what about the other products of oil, mainly, plastics.

Yes that wonderful non-degrading product we use daily is made out of oil.  I recently read an article that stated that a laser toner cartridge on average has between 1/2 to 1 gallon of oil in the creation process, while Inkjet cartridges are around 1-3 quarts.  This can add up over time.  The question is when will companies like HP, Lexmark, and Canon pass on the cost of the plastics on to consumers.  I would guess it is only a matter of time and here are the factors.

1. Cartridges are their money makers, even for a large company like HP.  So if their margins slip, they want to keep investors happy, they would raise prices.
2. Shipping cost have increased.  We have all seen this in food, fuel, and everyday purchases.
3. The cartridge bodies are made from plastic - Plastic is made from oil.  It only makes sense that the prices would increase.

We have already seen 10% price increases from Canon  and Brother, plus an increase due to the weakness of the pound against the Euro.  It is a long tine since we had to worry about currency fluctuations, but since September we have seen about 15% reduction in the value of the pound to the Euro and all of our Original Manufacturers cartridges base prices are in Euros.

However, using recycled and refilled printer cartridges should not see as big of increase for one main reason, we are not making new cartridge bodies.  We use the shell they made and add ink to it and make it work.  So not only is it still the best environmental option, but also makes much more sense financially to use remanufactured laser and inkjet cartridges

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Six Steps to Greener Printing in 2008.

 

Printing can be ecologically costly. Printer ink can leach out of cartridges and papers in landfills and pollute the surrounding environment; and paper manufacturing destroys ecologically diverse forests and contributes to global warming. Luckily, however, it’s not difficult to make your home or office printing more environmentally friendly. All you need to do is develop some earth-friendly habits. Here are six easy steps you can take for earth-friendly printing this year.

 

Recycle your ink cartridges. When ink cartridges end up in landfills, the leftover ink residue leaches volatile organic chemicals (VOC’s) into the surrounding environment. These chemicals can cause cancer and birth defects in those who are exposed. In addition, the engineering-grade polymers used in cartridge plastic take about 1,000 years to decompose. Over 65 million ink cartridges are used each year in the U.K., and unfortunately 85% of them end up in landfills.

 

You can keep yours out of landfills longer by recycling your ink cartridges. Many companies will provide instructions for how to do this on the cartridge packaging. In addition, some recycling nonprofits will recycle your ink cartridges for free. Some provide free shipping envelopes or pick up your cartridges for you. Nonprofits in the U.K. that offer these services include Cartridges4Charity [http://www.cartridges4charity.co.uk/], Action Aid Recycling [http://www.actionaidrecycling.org.uk/], and the Recycling Appeal [http://www.recyclingappeal.com/].

 

Use fewer colours. The less ink you use on your printed materials, the less ink will eventually wind up in landfills. As much as possible, print in black ink or use simple two-tone graphics. This isn’t just good for the environment; it’s also good for your wallet.

 

Get the most out of your ink. Printer companies do the best they can to try to get you to buy more ink. This hurts both your budget and the environment. Conserve ink as much as possible by changing your cartridges only when your ink really is gone—not just when your printer tells you you’re running low. If you’re planning on buying a printer, choose one with individual cartridges instead of all-in-one, so you don’t have to replace every colour when one runs low. Whenever possible, print in Draft mode and in black ink.

 

Use recycled paper. In the U.K., most paper production comes from sustainable forests—forests that are planted, harvested, and replanted for the express purpose of paper production, rather than wild forests clear-cut by paper companies. However, these sustainable forests are usually uniform stands of fast-growing softwoods. Companies cut down slow-growing, diverse hardwood forests to plant these trees, but they can’t support the area’s ecosystem as well—so they’re still not environmentally ideal. In addition, the paper manufacturing and bleaching process releases toxins into the air and groundwater.

 

You can help by using less new paper and more recycled paper. Many people think recycled paper is discoloured, spotted, and generally lower in quality than new; this isn’t true. Quality recycled paper looks indistinguishable from new, and it’s not much more expensive.

 

Print on both sides. A great deal of paper is wasted when people print on only one side of a document. If your printer has a duplex setting, use it whenever possible. If not, it’s still feasible to print one page at a time and reload the page to print on the other side—although it’s time consuming for longer documents. At the very least, choose a printer with a duplex setting next time you’re shopping for printers. In addition, instead of throwing out waste paper with only one side printed, save it as scrap paper.

 

Print less. Printing less saves both paper and ink. Whenever possible, limit your printing. Send email instead of hardcopy mail when you can, and avoid printing out emails for your records—instead, back them up electronically. Instead of sending reports, white papers, and longer documents in hard copy form, send them in .PDF email attachments when you can. When you do print, shrink your margins to allow more words on each page.

 

Many people think that being environmentally friendly is expensive and inconvenient. This is not usually true. Most of these steps will save you money as well as benefit the planet, and they’re not difficult to do. Integrate these simple habits into your normal office procedure, and your office is sure to be more ecologically friendly this year.

Every High street in the country seems to have two or three cartridge refilling shops, and I’m sure that like me you have peered inside and watched the process. I want to show you how our refilled cartridges are actually refilled and let you compare our processes with what you see on the high street.

 

We recently visited our refillers at Greentech and filmed their refilling process from start to finish and I hope that you find this interesting

 

Most people think that refilled cartridges are used, empty cartridges that are simply drilled and then refilled with ink. Unfortunately in some cases this proves to be true.

 

Using cartridges refilled in this why can lead to all kinds of issues such as, blocked nozzles, faulty print-heads, dry sponges and or leaking cartridges. All of which affect the quality of the cartridge you get.

 

At stinkyink we do things differently, we believe in supplying you, our valued customers with a high quality product, one which we use ourselves and are proud to be associated with. As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words, so instead of simply explaining to you the process let me show you the process.

 

The procedure used is quite lengthy and thorough, it begins with each cartridge being checked and then any excess dried ink wiped from the print-head.

 

The top of the cartridge is then removed allowing access to the interior of the cartridge.

 

Inside the cartridge is a sponge, which is controls the flow of ink to the print head and prevents it from leaking from the cartridge.

    

When a cartridge has been used, the sponge inside usually dries out, making it harder to refill and allowing dry particles to come loose and block the delicate print-head nozzles from the inside. This is why we remove the old, used sponges from the cartridge.

 

The next stage is to clean the cartridge, this is done thoroughly to ensure the removal of any dry ink residues from the cartridge and print-head. The cartridge then goes into a machine which sprays warm water onto the nozzles clearing them of any residue.

 

The cartridges are then dried in a special oven.

 

Once the cleaning and drying process is complete the cartridges are ready to be refilled.

 

Before being filled with ink, brand new clean sponges are placed inside the recently cleaned cartridges. A replacement lid is then glued onto the cartridge to ensure a tight seal

 

The cartridge is then professionally refilled, using an ink refilling machine, and using high quality OCP German ink. All of our refilled cartrides use the OCP inks and we won’t sell any cartridges that don’t as we believe the OCP ink gives results so close the the manufacturers that most people don’t notice the difference.

    

Once filled each cartridge is then tested on a smart printer to ensure that ink is flowing freely from the print-head.

 

Once the technician is satisfied that the cartridge is working, the print-head is protected firstly by covering with blue, low tack print-head tape and then covered by a travel clip.

 

A new label is placed over the old one to show that it has been refilled and is not an OEM product.

 

The remanufactured cartridge is then sealed inside an anti static plastic bag and boxed up ready to be sold.

 

After seeing the how these cartridges are remanufactured, its now up to you to choose.

 

What would you prefer to use in your printer, a cartridge that has been remanufactured through this thorough process by professional technicians or risk using a cartridge that has been simply drilled and refilled with ink.

 

I know which choice I would make.

 

Thank you for your time, that’s all for now, and remember Don’t think ink, think stinkyink.

Just received into stock here at Stinkyink towers we have refilled HP inkjet cartridges equivalent to HP’s No 21 and 22. The original HP cartridges contain 5ml of ink and are designated ‘low usage’ cartridges, however the refilled versions contain 15ml of ink in the black and 12ml in the colour which we believe gives better customer value for the prices of the cartridges.

We do believe in customer choice and will offer selection of high quality compatible/refilled cartridges wherever they are available to our customers