The Environment Site Green Living Guides

Green Guide to Cartridge Recycling

The guide below is written by Wobs, a member of our forum, and gives a few pointers as to the best places to recycle consumables such as printer cartridges, fax and copier toners. Many models cannot be recycled for a variety of reasons, and it is worth checking this before purchasing a new piece of equipment. A printer may be cheap, but it can still cost the Earth.

Many cartridges are refillable, but eventually even these will wear out, and require careful disposal.

How you recycle your printer cartridges will depend upon how many you consume. If you are a resident or small business, with a single inkjet, you need to be looking for either a local collection point, or a charity that sends out plastic envelopes (such as ActionAid or Childline). They are free post, so it will be a free service, with minimal effort.

Many stationery shops have cartridge collection points, so as you buy new ones, you can safely dispose of your old ones. Just make sure you have the box so it remains in good condition.

If your cartridge needs are on a more commercial scale, then a collection box of your own will be more worthwhile. Again, many charities and suppliers provide these for free, and can benefit yourself financially or you can contribute to a charity.

Services such as Lasertech or ActionAid provide this choice, and will take most (but not all) makes.

This is one of the problems with cartridge recycling, there are many cartridges that are not recyclable, and what make the printer is, is rarely an indication to its recyclability. Each of the links below will help in working out who will accept your consumables.

http://www.actionaidrecycling.org.uk/ (last updated August 2006)

Childline will send out envelopes for inkjets

Oxfam

Lasertech accept a wide range of cartridges

All require the box that the cartridge came in.

Also, make sure they have the relevant waste licenses.

They'll need a waste carrier's license unless they are:

• Waste producers carrying their own waste, except building or demolition waste.
• Ferry operators in relation to the carriage of waste by vehicles on the ferry.
• The operator of a vessel, aircraft, hovercraft, marine structure, floating container or vehicle being used to dispose of waste at sea in accordance with the Food and Environmental Protection Act (FEPA) 1985. Charitable and voluntary organisations.
• Government Departments and Councils.

And will a waste management license unless they have an exemption, in which case they'll have proof of that.

Manufacturers often provide their own recycling service.

Canon

However, despite their excellent website promising an environmentally friendly service, Canon brand toner cartridges (for LBP, FAX, PFC and MFP machines) are the only consumables that can be recycled. Ink cartridges (for BJ printers, MFP machines, Calculators and Large Format printers) and toners for other Canon machines cannot be returned through their program.

If you have a Canon machine that they do not collect, try one of the other services listed above.

If no-one takes your Canon consumable, consider refilling, or if it’s a copier consumable, taking it apart and recycling the plastic.

HP

The UK service information can be found here: https://h20010.www2.hp.com/ereturns/welcome.do?__country=GB&__lang=en

Here is a list of inject HP cartridges that CANNOT be recycled:
https://h20010.www2.hp.com/ereturns/nonreturnable.do?__country=GB&__lang=en

These lists should be used, not only as a guide for what to do with your existing consumables, but also as a clue in what should be your next purchase , as the next time you choose a printer, you can see what could happen to your cartridges.

Other manufacturers such as Dell, and Lexmark also have services, all of them will only take their own branded cartridges back, and only if they are recyclable.

• Epson
• Lexmark
• Dell

Comments (12) 19.04.2007. 02:58

Guide to buying green energy

Have you ever stopped to think about where your electricity comes from? In the UK about two thirds of our electricity is generated by burning coal and gas in power stations. This releases millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, the main gas responsible for climate change, every year. The other third of electricity mainly comes from nuclear power, which has other worryingly severe environmental impacts.

'Green electricity' means electricity produced from sources which do not cause these impacts upon the environment. Of course, every type of electricity generation will have some impact, but some sources are much greener than others. The cleanest energy sources are those which utilise the natural energy flows of the Earth. These are usually known as renewable energy sources, because they will never run out.

Why Buy Green Power?

By choosing to purchase a green power product, you can support increased development of renewable energy sources, which can reduce the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Greater reliance on renewable sources also provides economic benefits and can improve our national energy security.

How Do I Buy Green Power?

In the UK

Most suppliers will have a general environmental policy, for private households some also offer separate green energy tariffs. These are usually one of two types:

1. The customer pays an additional payment to the regular tariff, sometimes doubled by the supplier, which funds renewable energy projects.
2. The customer pays a different renewable energy tariff, each unit of electricity used is replaced by the supplier from renewable sources.

America

If retail electricity competition is allowed in your state, you may be able to purchase a green power product from an alternative electricity supplier. Some states have already implemented electricity competition. Check the Status of State Electric Industry Restructuring Activity (PDF 2.1 MB) map, prepared by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, to see if your state has passed an electricity competition law.

Even if your state is not implementing electricity market competition, you may still be able to purchase green power through your regulated utility. More than 600 regulated utilities spanning more than 30 states offer "green pricing" programs (see this map of green pricing programs). The term green pricing refers to an optional utility service that allows customers to support a greater level of utility investment in renewable energy by paying a premium on their electric bill to cover any above-market costs of acquiring renewable energy resources.

Finally, whether or not you have access to green power through your utility or a competitive electricity marketer, you can purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs). RECs (also known as green tags, green energy certificates, or tradable renewable certificates) represent the environmental attributes of power generated from renewable electric plants. A variety of organizations offer RECs separate from electricity service, that is, you need not switch from your current electricity supplier in order to purchase these certificates.

To find out what green power options are available in your state, please visit this guide: Can I Buy Green Power in My State? page, where you can click on your state to view available green power products.

Don't forget to reduce your energy usage as well

In addition to sourcing your energy from green sources there is also lots you can do to reduce your energy usage, so have a look around some of the other guides here for great ways to reduce your energy bill each month.

Comments (2) 30.10.2006. 05:33

Green Guide to Surfing the Web

Green Guide to Surfing the Web

The Internet is such a vast part of our daily lives now that it seems impossible to imagine a time without it. Nonetheless there are various ways you can go about making your Internet browsing as environmentally friendly as possible. In this guide we'll try and outline some of the greener choices you can make.

Choosing an eco friendly ISP

To get onto the Internet you need an Internet Service Provider, or ISP. You'd think that these are all much the same as far as environmental issues go but there are a few out there that pride themselves on their green credentials. Arguably the best in the UK is the aptly titled Green ISP.

Founded in 2003, Green ISP is a not-for-profit, forward thinking, innovative Internet Services Provider(vISP), which aims to secure its vision of being securely placed to meet the understanding and requirements of our fast changing world and environment.

They act in a green way by offsetting the 25 tonnes or so of carbon they produce each year through TreeSponsibility, and also plant 1 tree for each new broadband and web hosting customer they get. Their offices are also powered partly by their own solar panels, with the remaining energy delivered by renewables provider Juice.

So all in all they're pretty green, and perhaps best of all they're a highly regarded ISP as well, so you get to choose the green option safe in the knowledge that you're getting good service as well.

Eco friendly email

Email is arguably the most popular of all Internet activities so why not try and choose an eco friendly email provider as well? There are a few out there, the main two being Care2 and Community Mail. We'll look at both in turn.

Care2 - Care2 are one of the leading environmental communities and their free email service has over 100,000 users. You get 100mb of storage space and a choice of email extensions, including: peacemail.com, whale-mail.com, care2.com, vegemail.com, wildmail.com, and animail.com.

Community Mail - Community Mail are one of the largest providers of eco friendly email. Their email service is powered 100% by renewable energy and they put 10% of annual revenue into environmental projects. With your free account you get 100mb of storage space and a choice of email extensions, including: communitymail.net, activist.cc, hippiemail.com, and globaluprising.com.

Comments (3) 26.10.2006. 01:40