 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Remanufacture or Recycle? Steve Farmer |
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Torn between the environmental issues and the cost saving issues, I would like to point out some facts before I start:-
Facts
- In 1997 the United Nations estimated that 41,000 tonnes of plastic contained within printer cartridges, that's laser and inkjet, were being dumped into landfill worldwide.
- Today, that figure is about 60,000 tonnes.
- It takes about 3.5 litres of oil to make one laser printer cartridge with the burning of fossil fuels, specifically oil and natural gas.
- It takes up to 1000 years for the plastic to return to its natural state.
- Manufacturers of these products insist that recycling will damage your printer. In days gone by this may have been the case - even now the cartridge recycling/remanufacturing industry is only scratching the surface. At present we have captured only about 11% of the potential market in Australia for recycling printer cartridges.
- For every cartridge that is remanufactured, approximately 1kg of plastic is withheld from the waste stream.
- As an industry, in the US alone recyclers conserve more oil in each seven month period than was spilled in Alaska's Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.
- And, probably the most important point to anyone here - it costs a fortune to keep your printer running with cartridges costing around $60.00 each, and so recycling makes sense. It saves money and helps to save our environment at the same time.
- Manufacturers such HP, Canon and Epson tell us that using a recycled cartridge will void your warranty - this is just not true. Under the Trade Practices Act they cannot void your warranty - they can only insist that you buy an original cartridge before any work is carried out on your printer. A point to note here - while your printer is under warranty, buy original cartridges; it can save a lot of heartache if something goes wrong.
- You only need one ink for all printers. This is also not true - I have 32 black inks at my shop, each designated for a different printer/manufacturer. Claims of a universal ink are incorrect. The formulations are quite different.
I am part of the growing printer cartridge remanufacturing industry and something needs to be done not only from the cost angle, but also from the environmental aspect.
Some Definitions
Remanufacturing is the process of restoring worn and durable products to like- new condition. Once the product has been restored to its original condition or performance, it can be sold as remanufactured goods.
Recycling on the other hand is the process of converting the collected product (printer cartridges) back into the raw material used to manufacture the original product. This process requires added labour, energy and processing capital to turn the raw material back into a new product.
Where Are We Today?
Since 1984 over 200 million desktop printers have been placed into the world. With the continuing improvements in price and performance, inkjets along with the PC have created a true revolution that enables everyone who buys a PC to have a colour printer on their desk. This market is now maturing at a rapid rate - as inkjet technology advances there are now several new markets emerging. Let's take a brief look at what's beyond water-based systems.
Water-based is still the main technology used as it feeds the office printer market. Solvent inks started to take off in the super-wide format printers as people shifted from air brush, screen printing and hand painting to inkjet technology for outdoors printing. Thus water-based is likely to remain the choice with most users of the technology today as it offers the best balance of properties.
Two new and rapidly growing markets for the inkjet are photo printing and industrial patterning. Each of these has the potential of equalling the desktop document printer market in size, and in the effects it will have on the way we live.
Digital cameras and inkjet printers together have begun to reshape the way we deal with photography - both as professionals and amateurs. By the end of this year, 2001, several million digital cameras and camcorders will have been sold worldwide. They use no film and do not use photo paper! The world is changing, and in the future we will no longer go to the Chemist to get our films processed; we will be able to do it all at home.
Over the next couple of years we will see a change in the direction that photographic quality takes. The new standard will be the use of pigmented inkjet photo prints that exceed ordinary photos in every measure of quality, longevity and ease of use. And, what's more, the ink is environmentally friendly - the chemical photo industry will become part of the computer industry.
The other market I mentioned earlier was industrial patterning - the term patterning is used here rather than printing because it illustrates the breadth of materials and applications that can be adapted to inkjetting.
Stainless steel print heads have been developed that can now "jet" any kind of fluid provided that it meets the requirements of the jetting process. Now, not only can dyes and pigments be jetted, but fluids made up of catalysts, metal complexes, molten solder, molten polymers and many other materials can be placed in any pattern on a substrate.
So, with just these two small examples we can see that inkjet technology will go far beyond the home and office with document printing into the new generation of patterning and in the fabrication of many different products.
Five years from now as full-width arrays of nozzles become readily available we will think of the inkjet in a completely new way. Not just as a document printing technology, but also as a flexible patterning technology with endless uses for the fabrication and decoration of the products we use every day.
Where Does That Leave Us?
We, as users of the current technology have a challenge in front of all of us.
How can we keep up with the technology and get all the features from the ever-expanding features while still keeping costs down?
So, what about refilling?
It is the answer.
About The Author
Steve Farmer, steve@printsaver.com.au has spent 30 years in the computer industry, in mainframe, mid-range and PC environments including seven years in computer/Internet security. He started Print Saver in Cheltenham in 1998 over concerns for environmental issues with printer cartridges and the lack of concern then shown by cartridge manufacturers over disposal issues. He is also involved in other recycling activities.
Reprinted from the June 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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