| It has become a lost art - the disposable society has | | | | - |
| got used to throwing everything away and ordering | | | | |
| a new one. Take the simple printer toner cartridge - | | | | 1. Make hole to pour in new toner ink. |
| the average laser printer has four of them - each | | | | 2. Put in Toner carefully into the printer toner |
| one takes about 2 liters of oil to produce. Inside is a | | | | cartridge. |
| very fine toner ink which is used to do the actual | | | | 3. Put stopper in for refilling next time. |
| printing - when this runs out we throw the whole | | | | 4. Place toner cartridge back in the printer. |
| manufactured component away - it's almost like | | | | 5. Carry on printing. It's not rocket science, you need |
| throwing your car away after you've used up all it's | | | | no real skills - pretty much anyone can do it. Of |
| petrol. The printer toner cartridge just like your car | | | | course the process is slightly longer than putting in a |
| can carry on working perfectly if it's refilled. | | | | brand new cartridge but not greatly. The costs |
| That's all it needs - put some ink in it and you're back | | | | savings vary quite a bit depending on which printer |
| printing - sound so simple doesn't it? Unfortunately | | | | toner cartridge you are refilling but you can save up |
| the printer manufacturers don't want you to do this - | | | | to 87% on the costs of a new cartridge. Many small |
| they want you to buy a new one because that's | | | | businesses that do a lot of printing literally save |
| where they make their profits. Even the green eco | | | | thousands on the cost of buying a new printer toner |
| recycling schemes are really not necessary at this | | | | cartridge. |
| stage - you don't need to recycle it yet - the printer | | | | The environmental benefits would be huge if |
| toner cartridge has just run out of ink. | | | | everyone did this - 44 million new printer toner |
| There used to be little stoppers on the cartridges so | | | | cartridges produced each year in Europe alone - |
| you could refill them - they've gone now - that made | | | | approximately 75% of these are only used once then |
| them too refillable. Having said that it is surprisingly | | | | needlessly thrown away or recycled. |
| easy to refill the majority of printer toner cartridges | | | | There are so many benefits to refilling your printer |
| with ease - just takes a little time (about ten minutes | | | | toner cartridge that it makes sense on many levels. |
| is my average) | | | | You can help the environment and save loads of |
| The process varies between models but it's basically | | | | money and your print quality is maintained. |