Earth Day suggestions from Cartridge World

A discarded printer cartridge thrown into a landfill can take up to 450 years to decompose and with more than 350 million cartridges thrown out every year in North America alone, it all adds up to mountains of unnecessary waste. It makes sense to reuse and refill empty ink and toner cartridges – and saves money in the process. Cartridge World recommends the following tips for an environmentally friendly home office/business:

• Refill and reuse empty printer cartridges – Empty ink jet and toner cartridges can be refilled and reused multiple times.
• Use rewriteable CDs and DVDs so they can be re-used again.
• Print double-sided.
• Decrease margin areas to fit more copy on a page.
• Double-check your drafts before you print.
• Communicate with team members about who will bring printouts to meetings.
• Turn off all electrical equipment at night.

Cartridge World reports some shocking ink and toner cartridge facts:

• It takes about a gallon of oil to make a new toner cartridge. This will help save oil, especially with the current gas/oil situation.
• Almost eight cartridges are thrown away per second in the United States.
• In North America alone, over 350 million cartridges per year are discarded in our landfills, and that number increases by 12 percent annually.
• Every remanufactured cartridge saves nearly 2.5 pounds of solid waste from being deposited in landfills.
• Seventy percent of used printer cartridges throughout the world are currently being thrown out
• In one year, if the world’s discarded cartridges were stacked end-to-end they would circle the earth over three times.

"Officially Earth Day is April 22nd, but at Cartridge World, it's everyday," said Susan Cowperthwaite, owner of Cartridge World - Lakewood (253-582-0300). "We hope these tips are helpful for the community to use year-round."

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