What’s The Tale Behind Print Cartridges?

Contemplate the fact that in 2012 some 1,8 billion print cartridges could have been left in rubbish dumps and be supplemented by a further 350 million each year, and you have some idea of the usage factor of cartridges along with the environmental problem they bring about. Cartridges are forecasted to take up to from 450 to a thousand years to break down. These little monsters also trigger other sorts of environmental issues in their manufacturing, like causing the emission of 4,8 kg’s CO2 per cartridge. Another 3,2 Kg’s of CO2 is released by the toner contained in the cartridge for the life-span of the toner.

In order to counter this happening, the United States and Europe have commenced with the launch of regulations to encourage the recycling of cartridges. This is not entirely good news for the manufacturers of cartridges, as they naturally will lose out on the sale of brand new cartridges. Some producers in fact make it difficult for the re-filling and recycling of their cartridges, by adding a chip that cannot be reset for additional use. In contrast a person that could remove this chip on a specific manufacturers’ cartridge, found he could print up to 38% more than what the chip intact enables. So, in effect this manufacturer was denying the consumer the usage of 38% worth of ink thereby forcing buying new cartridges.

An ink cartridge is a replaceable part of an ink jet printer. The cartridge contains the ink and quite often the print head. The price of such cartridges (mostly two per printer for black and white and colour printing) are pretty high-priced and in some absurd cases it is less costly to buy a new computer printer than replace the cartridges. Cartridges of various manufacturers can’t be interchanged because of different design criteria and various electrics. Oftentimes when a printer uses 2 cartridges, the black and white cartridge won’t work if the colour cartridge is empty forcing the replacing of colour cartridges.

Despite all these tricks by the original manufacturers, there are ways to save money on replacement cartridges. Firstly, check around for “compatibles” at +- 30-40% discount, which are largely originally manufactured cartridges by alternative manufacturers, or secondly have your original ink cartridges filled again by one of the shops that sell compatibles. Provided your printer ink cartridges are in excellent condition and have not been refilled more than 3 times, such transaction will save you an impressive 50-70% discount in comparison to a new branded ink cartridge. Some shops also provide so called “re-manufactured” ink cartridges, but those are no more than re-filled and cleaned up cartridges. Another (perhaps not too good an option) is to re-fill your own cartridges, but this in practise has proofed not to be such a great option as it is untidy and the results often less than adequate.

It isn’t always realized by the consumer but printing is an expensive part of computing, especially for those people who get involved in photo printing or other forms of specialised printing. It is wise to explore alternatives to save on printing costs.

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