Replacing Laser Toner Cartridges

Chances are you've had a nasty shock - the cost of replacing the cartridges is often more than the cost of the printer! Well guess what every printer manufacturer makes much more money from toner cartridges than they do from the printer - industry estimates reckon that some large printer companies make less than $60 on the cost of a $600 printer - but make $600 per annum on the toner cartridges.

Ever wondered why those laser and ink printers are so cheap - well that's the reason. But it gets worse not only are these toner cartridges extremely expensive - just look at what you are throwing away - my Lexmark C500N has 5 toner cartridges - the amount of manufactured plastic in each one is quite a lot - and you just have to discard the whole thing because it's run out of toner powder !! Each one of these laser toner cartridges takes about 1- 2 litres of oil to produce, the environmental cost of throwing each cartridge away is quite significant.

Of course many manufacturers may promote some eco-friendly return or swap scheme - lots of little return packages with pictures of trees and cloud and other environmentally friendly images. They say they want you to return their cartridges - so they could dispose/renew these cartridges in an eco-friendly manner. Not so they want you to return
their cartridge so they are not renewed or reused by anyone else and you the customer have to buy a brand new toner or ink cartridge.

Some years ago most toner cartridges for laser printers and fax machines were easiliy refillable - you just opened a little plastic stopper and refilled it with ink. Simple huh - but that wasn't quite as profitable as buying a new toner cartridge so they removed the plastic stopper in most cases! Some manufacturers went further and inserted little chips on the cartridge which effectively rendered the cartridge unusable after one print run. This is effectively using valuable resources simply to prevent the reuse or renewal of the toner cartridge - how eco-friendly is that !

Although when you see the toner low message on your printer - the manufacturers want you to buy a whole new cartridge. The simple fact is that despite their best efforts all the working parts in a toner cartridge have a significantly longer life - guess what the toner cartridge has simply run out of ink!

Yes that's it - the cartridge has just run out of ink - should you buy a new one - well that's almost like buying a new car because your has run out of petrol. That may sound an extreme analogy but it's not that far from the truth !

If the toner cartridge could be refilled with ink then it would be just fine and you could carry on printing - the more you think about it the more you realise how consumers are being ripped off by these manufacturers.

Just imagine the environmental benefit if everyone just refilled their laser/ink/fax toner cartridges just once before buying a new one. How many less cartridges would need to be manufactured - the numbers are simply staggering - the environmental cost of producing less cartridges is also huge - remember 1-2 litres of oil for each cartridge.

Of course the printer manufacturers will carry on with their eco-friendly renewable schemes - where you send them back their pristine cartidge in exchange for a new one (and some cash) - again more environmental impact as cartridges are transferred around the country,

So what are the options - can you refill toner and ink cartridges? I'm pleased to say in the vast number of cases you can fairly simply despite the best efforts of these manufacturers.

There are several ways of reusing or renewing your cartridges -

1) Refill cartridge yourself - there are companies who can simply you with the ink or toner and instructions on how to refill your cartridge. This is usually fairly simple with the correct instructions and is non-intrusive so doesn't risk damaging the cartridge by touching moving parts etc. You are simply refilling with ink or toner and putting back into your printer.

2) Buy Remanufactured catridges - here you are just buying a used cartridge that has been remanufactured. These are usually cheaper than new cartridges and have the added benefit of reusing the
majority of components.

3) Return the cartridge to manufacturer for professional remanufacturing - this is better than throwing the cartridge away as the majority of parts can usually be reused and anything else disposed of in as environmentally friendly manner as possible. You can also donate to some charities who will be able to make some money selling on for remanufacturing.

All the above are cheaper and more environmentally friendly than throwing away your cartridge and buying a new one. Of course the whole industry could make huge environmental savings if the manufacturers allowed you to refill cartridges simply and easily but it would definitely cost them a huge amount of revenue so don't hold your breath!!
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