When considering what type of printer to buy for a home or a small business, there are many things that should be taken into consideration. To begin, printers are nowhere near as expensive as they were a decade ago. A printer that may have cost a private consumer a thousand dollars ten years ago would probably be outstripped by a modern inkjet or laser printer costing merely one hundred dollars. The story does not end when a printer is chosen, though. Ink and toner cartridges can be confusing, but there is one thing that should always be kept in mind: always recycle toner cartridges and ink cartridges.

It may surprise many consumers to find out that the average Brother HL-4070 toner and inkjet cartridge is recyclable, which can help save the environment. Unfortunately, only about eighteen percent of these products are actually recycled or reused. Although this may be a high percentage in regards to some types of recycling, there is simply no reason not to recycle these products. Experts estimate the life of a printer cartridge in a landfill at around one thousand years, which is much longer than the biodegradability time of a significant portion of other waste products. Furthermore, recycling has the potential to save very large amounts of natural resources and raw materials. Remanufacturing or reusing Canon MF4150 toner cartridges can save over eleven million gallons of oil per year. With the current gas prices, it is easy to see how much nearly everyone could benefit from this. Finally, recycling and reusing can prevent over one hundred twenty million tons of rubbish from being deposited in landfills every year.

Not only can recycling save the environment, it can also be financially beneficial on multiple levels. Aside from expending less oil, buying a remanufactured cartridge is usually far less expensive than buying a new brand name product. Remanufactured products are also subjected to quality checks that ensure the recycled cartridge is just as good as its more expensive counterpart. Many retailers and online businesses also pay people to recycle their used printer supplies. Although some products may only be worth pennies, others can be worth over twenty dollars. So next time the printer runs out of HP ink or Konica-Minolta 2530 toner, think twice about throwing that HP toner cartridge away and try recycling. It could bring in some extra money and it is the environmentally responsible thing to do.

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