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Soy-Based Toner Cartridges?
Jon.Laslow writes "I'm getting a lot of pressure from managers to switch to soy-based toner cartridges for our laser printers because they are 'greener.' The problem is, the only information I can find on them is from sales pitches; and the reviews all seem to be user testimonials. Do you have any experience soy-based printing products? Did you have any issues with them, and how was the print quality?"
...and let us know.
Your sales pitch will be corny with soy based printers
So, basically, they could create lickable sheets with that process? ... Makes the Rolling Stones tongue suddenly look completely different ...
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Use rice paper, then you can eat any extra printouts.
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
Soy based toner cartridges are probably ok, but I'd want to see the nutritional composition clearly labeled so we can compare the carbohydrate content with other equipment, such as our roughage-based fax machine.
I think the Ford Model T had Bakelite components, which were made from processed soy protein. But relatively few owners took them apart and shook the components to get more mileage, iirc.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
If you want green and soy, nothing beats soylent green.
I don't know about the print quality, but switching to rice paper made for a delicious combination.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Soy Green ink is people! Soy Green ink is people!
No,I don't know why it's not red.
If managers are discussing this with you and you're following up, you're doing your job wrong. Deflect the question: mention that really the carbon wasted from one cartridge is really no more than used by running the computers for a week in a year, which is essentially equivalent to 2.5 Volkswagens per library of congress. Use units they understand. Then suggest they compensate by turning of the computers for one day a week, and really there's no reason to leave the lights on either. Yes we can help the environment. Change. Paradigm. Use words they understand.
In fact, might as well let the workers stay home. It will boost morale and help the environment. Win win. They will leave with a confused look that means you can get back to your game of nethack.
Either that, or use it as an excuse to surf to slashdot during work hours. Which it appears is what you did.
Qxe4
... don't replace the toner cartridge at all, and save toner, paper, power, and the manufacturing and disposal costs of the printer. If the managers really want to be green, they can avoid producing all that paperwork.
Standard laser-printer toner is made up of tiny specs of carbon black and plastic. When you print with this toner, you're fixing carbon onto paper. Point out how green this is.
That's right! If you want it to be "green", you have to use Organically Grown Soy so those horrible GMOs won't, uh, get on your paper and ... uh ... club the baby seals ... umm ...
Damn! Lost my place in the chapter about soy in my copy of "Liberal Rants for All Occasions." If only it wasn't printed on hemp paper, maybe we wouldn't have smoked the table of contents.
John
If you print a lot of green shit. Otherwise I would recommend that you buy cartridges with normal amounts of each color.
That is two solutions in one:
1 - any report becomes invisible after a while. I bet Arthur Andersen would have paid a fortune for that feature alone. Besides, anything thicker than an 1 inch when printed is redundant the moment it's sent to the print queue (I just made that up, but feels about right in my experience :-).
2 - the paper can be recycled. Maybe not as printer paper, but scrap. And folded paper planes look much nicer without print on them, I just don't know what soy toner does to the aero dynamics. I suggest a week long study to find out.
On the serious side, thanks. Fade is a feature worth avoiding..
Insert
...is brought to you by Soylent red and Soylent yellow, high energy vegetable concentrates, and new, delicious, Soylent green. The miracle food of high-energy plankton gathered from the oceans of the world.
Toner is either carbon based, or far more commonly a polymer. A fine powder of plastic if you will. Take one giant slab of coloured plastic, grind it up in to a very fine powder, add some creative marketing and an astronomical price tag.
In truth, toner is getting more and more complex, some manufacturers grow it, like a plant, then harvest it in its virginal state, it's pure, it's microscopic. Virgins make for better print quality on your paper apparently.
Further proof of the internet conspiracy to make SigNuZX728 look like an idiot.
-The world would be a better place if everyone had a hoverboard
What could be more carbon neutral than the CARBON toner already in the cartridge? Why would SOY based toner be any greener?
...
Have I missed something here? Soy is the vegetarian meat, but as such is no greener than other forms of carbon. (Or is toner made from fried/burnt animals
People!
And the beauty is, if a cartridge springs a leak, you can always use the ink to dip your sushi in.
you can do that?
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
Soy Green Toner is people!
We've got to stop them somehow!
I thought for sure you'd tell him to get a crew cut.
There's probably a dozen more dangerous chemicals then mercury in most kitchens.
Ah, I see you've tasted my cooking.
I intend to live forever, or die trying. - Groucho Marx
soon slashdot users will be harvested for their ink :)
Toner is either carbon based, or far more commonly a polymer. A fine powder of plastic if you will. Take one giant slab of coloured plastic, grind it up in to a very fine powder, add some creative marketing and an astronomical price tag.
Oh come on. Carbon, I would believe (so would you if you'd ever had an engine apart) but plastic??!?!
Plastic and carbon are completely different things! Carbon is black and hard, and plastic is soft and shiny. Sheesh, I thought /. was supposed to be full of smart people!
Next thing you're gonna start talking nonsense about bacon and pork being from the same animal!
like someone else said, a waist of good oxygen.
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Actually I think we can get farther by taking an angry mob and beating with sacks of potatoes and doorknobs every manager and yuppie that talks about "being green" and suggests stupid non green ways. Soap in a sock works great as well.
Anyone at your office is against telecommuting? beat the shit out of them. They driving a hybrid instead of using real Green alternatives? Beat the shit out of them. a fully window office is wasted for the exeutive that is never there? Beat the shit out of him. Continue until they are crying and hiding under their desks, or actually get a clue.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I accidentally dropped a CFL and it broke. We ventilated the room as recommended. That was several months ago, and I'm no worse tapobiuplktpu arubpot apbuptlwer apo8utplb 2q98u paiutba;ltughg;uahnb for it.
soon slashdot users will be harvested for their ink :)
I would hate to be in the small, but very vulnerable intersection of Slashdot readers and squids.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).