Printer Cartridges and the Environment

• In the recycling process, the entire cartridge is reused because it is ‘remanufactured’ to be a new cartridge.

• There are over 100 million printer cartridges used in Canada each year. Only 5-10% of these are presently recycled.

• 300 million laser and inkjet cartridges go to landfills every year in North America.

• The plastic used in each cartridge takes more than 1000 years to decompose.

• Stacked end to end, cartridges thrown away in North America in one year would cover a distance of over 38,000 km - enough to circle the earth.

• Two and a half ounces of oil are used to make the plastic for every inkjet cartridge produced.

back to top