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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.

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