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Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Empty Toner Cartridges?
New submitter MoarSauce123 writes: Over time I accumulated a number of empty toner cartridges for a Brother laser printer. Initially, I wanted to take a local office supply chain store up on their offer to give me store credit for the returned cartridge. For that credit to be issued I would have to sign up for their store card providing a bunch of personal information. The credit is so lousy that after the deduction from the sales price of a new toner cartridge the price is still much higher than from a large online retailer. And the credit only applies to one new cartridge, so I cannot keep collecting the credit and then get a cartridge 'for free' at some point.
I also looked into a local store of a toner refill chain. Their prices are a bit better, but the closest store is about half an hour away with rather odd business hours. Still, at the end they charge more than the large online retailer asks for a brand new cartridge. For now I bring the empty cartridges to the big office supply store and tell them that I do not want their dumb store credit. I rather have big corp make some bucks on me than throw these things in the trash and have it go to a landfill. Are there any better options? Anything from donating it to charity to refilling myself is of interest.
I also looked into a local store of a toner refill chain. Their prices are a bit better, but the closest store is about half an hour away with rather odd business hours. Still, at the end they charge more than the large online retailer asks for a brand new cartridge. For now I bring the empty cartridges to the big office supply store and tell them that I do not want their dumb store credit. I rather have big corp make some bucks on me than throw these things in the trash and have it go to a landfill. Are there any better options? Anything from donating it to charity to refilling myself is of interest.
For most Brother cartridges you can find refill kits for a fraction of what even generic toner carts with poor reviews cost. I've had good luck with mine, though you WILL want to buy new end caps as they get damaged enough when you remove them that they will almost always leak toner which makes a mess and ruins prints.
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Damn, that's a nice program. Kudos to Brother.
I wish I could find something on their website that states what they actually do with the returned toner cartridges. All I could find is this:
We will evaluate the opportunities to recycle, reuse, reduce, refuse and reform resources throughout the life cycle of our products.
My emphasis. This is not a commitment to recycle. It's feel-good corporate-speak.
Do they actually dismantle and recycle them? Do they refurbish them, or sell them to a refurbisher? Or do they just dispose of them so that they stay out of the after-market?
I'm sorry to be cynical. Brother may very well be acting as a good corporate citizen. But when I don't see explicit mention of their actions, I start to wonder what they are.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Damn, that's a nice program. Kudos to Brother.
It's not just Brother, just about every printer manufacturer will send you packing materials and / or a shipping label, all for free. Brother laserjet cartridges get a few points by frequently having the return label already in the box with the new one, so you just put the old one in the box, slap the label on it, and drop it in the mail.
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would you even consider to throw these into normal trash. Here in Germany, that would get you fined - (almost) empty laser printer cartridges are nearly on the same level of nastiness as old engine oil.
On the other hand, if you do not find a commercial recycling program you like (every toner manufacturer and seller on the German market has to take back its empty cartridges at zero cost, and of course we also have companies which specialize in refills and pay a few dimes for used cartridges), every communal recycling center accepts toner cartridges free of charge. And in case they'd manage to make some bucks of them, it goes into the city budget. No need for charity shopping.
I always assumed manufacturers collecting spent toner cartridges to "recycle" was a conspiracy to keep third party re-manufactures from getting used cartridges to rebuild.
Imo, if you're an average-use household it's at least worth looking into the refill kits. I've had a Brother HL2280DW for over 4 years (?) and have never bought a new cartridge (or drum unit). As opposed to just popping a new cartridge in, it does take some time to reset the gear and refill from the bottle. But it solves both problems of recycling and high cost of a new unit/cartridge.
One of the keys to success may be blowing out the old toner before refilling (the refill vendor mentions this). So each refill I'll grab my compressor and head outside, give it a few good blasts then refill with fresh toner. Of course canned air would probably be fine too. Realize though that the low toner light on the printer lies. You don't want to be blowing out a ton of perfectly good toner so I always wait until the print is actually degraded before doing the refill.
All told, it takes about 15 minutes and the printer is up and running just fine again. We've never noticed any quality differences.
As far as finding a vendor, when you find one you like, be sure to bookmark them or save the receipt because their names all sound the same (i.e. I finally remembered mine is printer ink warehouse...and that's after placing more than 5 orders ;)