Over 100 million printer cartridges are thrown out each year (some estimates place it as high as 300 million). With an estimated decomposition time of 450 years, that's a lot of waste that will stay in the ground for generations. Many printer companies make their money in consumables. That's why printers are often only slightly more expensive than the ink cartridges they use. However, instead of running out and buying new cartridges, you can actually reuse your old ones in different ways.

INKJET PRINTERS

Most people use inkjet printers at home and go through one or more cartridges of ink each year. There are two ways to reuse ink cartridges for these machines - buy re-manufactured cartridges that are professionally refilled or refill them yourself.

Refill Kits
By refilling your depleted printer cartridge yourself with a refill kit, you can save up to 80% over the cost of a new cartridge. For instance, new Epson Stylus cartridges will run about $20 for a black and $25 for color while a $12 refill kit can provide up to three refills of all the cartridges. In addition, the three color inks (magenta, cyan, yellow) are often lumped together in inkjet cartridges. When you run out of one of these colors, the machine forces you to replace the whole cartridge even though the other two colors may not be empty yet, leading to harmful leftover ink being dumped into the environment. Refilling the cartridges yourself avoids this as you refill only what is used.

Most refill kits come with four bottles of ink (black plus the three colors your printer uses), a syringe if the bottles don't have syringe tips, and seal dots (stickers to place over the fill holes). As different printers have different cartridge setups, always follow the directions included in your refill kit for your specific model. Generally, they all follow these simple steps. It is highly recommended that you do all this over paper towels to catch excess/spilt ink.

1)    Remove your used ink cartridge from the printer.

2)    Locate the fill hole at the top of the cartridge. It is usually under the label sticker. Use a pencil, toothpick, or any sharp object to pierce through the label.

3)    If your ink bottles don't have syringe tips, use the included syringe to carefully extract 2 to 3 ml of ink.

4)    Insert the needle of the syringe or bottle into the cartridge fill hole and slowly inject the ink into the proper color hole (use the diagrams provided in the instructions). Stop once the ink starts to over flow and use the syringe/bottle to suck up excess ink or carefully blot it.

5)    Seal the refill hole with the seal dots or use a small piece of scotch tape.

6)    Once you have refilled all the colors, replace the cartridge into the printer and print some test sheets of anything to get the ink flowing. That's all there is to it!

When refilling your own ink cartridges, it's important to ensure that you buy the proper refill kit. Not all inks are the same and different printer models require different compositions of ink. Most refill kits are clearly labeled to what printers they are compatible with and many are not interchangeable. If you have two different models of printers in your home, you will probably need to purchase two different refill kits.

Re-manufactured Cartridges
These cartridges are actually used cartridges that have been refilled by a supply company. They are much cheaper than new cartridges, often costing as little as one-fourth the price of a brand name cartridge.

The advantages are that you won't have to do any of the messy work of injecting ink into the cartridges. These cartridges are plug and go just like brand new cartridges. Also, some models of printers use cartridges with electronic chips in them that won't let you use them past their "recommended life", preventing you from refilling them yourself. Re-manufactured cartridges have these chips reprogrammed and usually this is the only way to reuse these cartridges.

Many online shops sell re-manufactured cartridges online shops sell remanufactured cartridges and offer free or very cheap shipping and there are a lot of physical refill shops that have opened up in malls in recent years that also offer refilling services in addition to selling kits and re-manufactured cartridges. However, it is important to find a reputable company to buy from as the quality of ink can differ greatly. Often, these places will take your used cartridge and recycle for you. Some places will even give you cash back for them, which is a good way to save even more money while ensuring your cartridge gets a second life.


LASER PRINTERS

Instead of liquid ink, laser printers use toner, which is akin to powdered ink. Laser toner cartridges are high yield and cost significantly more to replace than inkjet printers. However, there are many places that sell remanufactured toner cartridges or offer refill services for a fraction of the price of a new cartridge.

Due to the nature of toner, it is highly recommended that you purchase remanufactured cartridges or have your used ones professionally refilled instead of attempting to refill it yourself. Refill kits for toner do exist but the act of refilling your cartridge may involve having to make your own fill hole in the cartridge, which is mess and can damage your printer if done improperly. In addition, the toner can also create health risks if inhaled. If you do decide to refill your own laser cartridges, follow the included directions in the kit and wear the proper protection. As laser cartridges have a lot more parts, it is not recommended that you refill them more than twice and many refilling companies will recycle them for you free of charge after they are not longer usable.


WARRANTIES AND PERFORMANCE

Whether you decide to use re-manufactured cartridges or refill them yourself, it is important to check that doing so won't void the warranty on your printer. Most manufacturers place these warnings to promote the sale of their official cartridges but improperly filled cartridges do have the potential to damage the printer.

Print quality with third party inks in refill kits and re-manufactured cartridges are also often not as high as official cartridges from the printer company. In most cases you will not notice the difference, as everyday printing doesn't require picture perfect quality. However, if you are printing high quality images like photos and posters, official ink may be a better choice. In this case, you can still donate your used cartridges once you are done with them to be recycled for other people who may not need such high quality print.
 

Recycling printer cartridges is an easy way to save money while keeping plastic out of our landfills. It takes about three liters of oil to produce a cartridge from scratch so reusing cartridges can greatly ease the burden on the environment if everyone does it. At the very least, you do stick with buying new cartridges, please donate your empty used ones to a charitable cause like CURE Recycling. It doesn't take much effort and the impact can be enormous.