Written by Emil L. Decker May 2010

Over 375 million empty toner & ink cartridges are thrown into the trash every year in the US. Most of these end up in landfills.

That’s roughly 11 cartridges being disposed every second. If you put all these cartridges end to end they would cover a distance encircling the earth over three times.

The plastic used in each printer cartridge takes more than 10 centuries (that's 1000 years!) to decompose.

Stacking 125 laser toner cartridges end- to-end equals the height of the Statue of Liberty.

More than 3 quarts of oil are used to produce each laser cartridge.

By recycling cartridges, we conserve natural resources and energy. 97 % of the materials that make up a printer cartridge can be recycled.

Printer cartridges can be refilled up to 15 times before reaching the end of their life, most averaging between 5-7 refills.

Some electronic equipment contain levels of heavy metals that could leach out & contaminate water if placed in a landfill. Environmental laws require careful disposal to recover these materials.

How much printer paper do you throw away? Paper makes up about 41% of our trash. Recycling simply makes good sense. Go Green and be a good steward of our planet.