At Pacific Office Automation, we believe in the triple bottom line: profit, people and planet. Our commitment to green living and minimizing our environmental impact is shown in the way we offer products that exceed Energy Star Compliance standards, partner with other sustainable businesses and manufacturers and of course, recycle unwanted machines, toner, and cardboard.
Most people know how and what to recycle in an office: paper, cardboard boxes, and plastic bottles. It gets a little trickier when it comes to printer cartridges and toner cartridges. Yet, those items are recyclable and doing so has an incredible impact on the environment. Consider these facts:
- About 25 million printer cartridges end up the landfill each month.
- It takes about 1,000 years for printer cartridges to decompose.
- It takes roughly 80% less energy to remanufacture plastic than to produce it new, and about half the amount of oil it takes to produce new cartridges.
- Recycling toner cartridges saves more than 38,000 tons of plastic and metal from landfills.
The hard part is figuring out how to recycle toner cartridges and what happens when we do so. You might be wondering where to recycle empty toner cartridges.
Manufacturers know how important it is to keep these items and their chemicals out of landfills. That is why many of Pacific Office Automation’s partners, such as Hewlett-Packard and Canon USA, have created convenient recycling programs for toner cartridges.
Our partner Konica Minolta leads the industry in protecting the environment with their Clean Planet Program, and Lexmark proudly features their Cartridge Collection Program as a huge way to reduce waste. Most toner cartridges come with prepaid postage for return shipping. Some can be dropped off at retailers, such as Staples, Office Max, Walmart or Office Depot, as well. These programs have kept billions of pounds out of our landfills over the years.
Are recycled toner cartridges as good as new? The answer is yes. Manufacturers inspect, clean, refurbish and refill the cartridges with new inks and toners. More than two-thirds of print and toner cartridges on the market today are remanufactured.
Pacific Office Automation understands the environmental impact of office equipment in all stages: manufacture, operation, and after-life. We only partner with manufacturers that are as equally dedicated to preventing pollution and reducing greenhouse gases in their manufacturing, shipping and recycling programs. We are just as serious about sustainability within our own company, recycling nearly 100% of unwanted machines, toner, and cardboard. We help our customers to recycle by removing any waste products after setting up new machines and provide customers with return-shipping labels for toner cartridges.